Suma Swaminathan is Head of Private Equity at WaterEquity, where she leads the firm’s global growth equity investments in water and sanitation. Prior to joining WaterEquity, Suma was a Director on the Investment Funds team at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), where she managed fund investments across emerging markets, focusing on sectors including climate adaptation and resilience, healthcare, and financial inclusion.
Earlier in her career, Suma served as a Director at Developing World Markets (DWM), a U.S.-based impact investment manager. At DWM, she led private equity investments in Asia, particularly in financial services and off-grid solar, across emerging and frontier markets.
Suma’s professional experience also includes roles in business and asset valuation at Empire Valuation Consultants and in technology at Infosys Limited. In addition, she has worked in international development, designing financial sustainability strategies for weaver cooperative societies in South India’s handloom sector.
She holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business, where she was named a Faculty Scholar for Social Enterprise and currently serves as an Advisor to the Center for Sustainable Business. Suma earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India.