Gautam Ivatury is currently working as a founder of Happy Financial Services. Happy, a service of ArthImpact Finserve is one of India's leading digital lenders. Happy was set up to build a large-scale platform and loan portfolio for the country's 50 million micro and small enterprises.

Gautam Ivatury has been a pioneer in expanding financial access using technology for nearly two decades. He has started or led pioneering ventures such as India’s first microfinance institution to IPO (SKS Microfinance), Kenya’s first mobile-based credit provider (Jipange Kusave), India’s first digital micro-lender (ArthImpact/Happy Loans), and the firm that incubated M-Kopa, Africa’s largest pay-go solar financier.

Gautam secured the Gates Foundation’s largest-ever grant in financial inclusion ($26m) while at CGAP / World Bank and set up its industry-shaping digital finance program. He has also chaired the global telecom association’s fund for mobile money, advised US-based VC and private equity funds, consulted to Fortune 500 players including Microsoft and Visa, and developed projects in 9 countries. Besides being an entrepreneur, advisor, and funder, Gautam has authored or co-authored groundbreaking work on the impact, business design and regulation of technology-driven financial inclusion. These have been published by the World Bank, CGAP, MIT Press, Springer Verlag, and media including the Banker and Revue Banque. Gautam has been a frequent lecturer at academic and executive programs including at Harvard University, MIT, Johns Hopkins University, the Wharton School and Columbia University business schools, Cambridge University and others. He has delivered dozens of keynote speeches and led discussions at trade conferences on virtually every continent and been a televised speaker on CNBC in the US and in India.