Swati Mylavarapu

Background

Swati Mylavarapu is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Incite.org, a values-based investment platform she launched in 2017 with Matt Rogers, co-founder of Nest ¹. Incite operates through three vehicles: Incite Ventures, an LLC investment fund backing mission-driven enterprises; Incite Labs, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit making grants and program-related investments; and Incite Politics, through which the founders personally support political initiatives and candidates ².

Mylavarapu began her career as a founding member of Google.org, working on mobile technology efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa and India ³. She then served as head of sales and client services at Quid, a data analytics company, where she developed the firm’s early revenue model and client base ⁴. She spent approximately three years at Square, where she led business operations and strategy for Square’s international expansion in Canada and Japan, and led product marketing for the company’s premium software offerings ⁴. In 2015, she joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a junior partner in the early-stage venture capital practice, focusing on digital health and consumer technology startups ⁴. She left Kleiner Perkins in 2017 to co-found Incite ⁵.

Mylavarapu holds an A.B. with highest honors in Development Studies from Harvard University and an MPhil in Economic and Social History from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar (Class of 2005, Wolfson College) ⁶. She is also a Truman Scholar and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa ⁶. She served as National Investment Chair for Pete Buttigieg’s 2019-2020 presidential campaign ⁵. She currently serves as a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust and as an At-Large Member of the United Way Worldwide Board of Trustees ^{6 7}. In April 2021, she was appointed to the board of directors of Green Thumb Industries, a cannabis company, where she serves on the Compensation Committee ⁵.

Stated Thesis

Incite publicly describes itself as supporting “entrepreneurs in the business of radical change” with a tagline of “Deeds not words” ⁸. Mylavarapu frames Incite’s investment approach around the question “What does the most good?” rather than solely “What is the rate of return?” ².

Mylavarapu has stated that Incite focuses on “discovering first-movers” — people “taking critical-but-fragile first steps to address substantive change” — and aims to provide the initial momentum these founders need ¹. Incite seeks ventures demonstrating bold visions for change, diverse and passionate teams, alignment with core values, and scalability and profitability potential ⁸.

Mylavarapu has described climate as “a grand challenge and a grand opportunity” with “creative potential” that is “universal” ⁹. Her co-founder Matt Rogers has noted that they prioritize “underfunded” opportunities, placing neglected climate areas “at the top of our list” ⁹. Mylavarapu has described philanthropy as “the ultimate creative capital” that functions like “modeling clay to build anything that the world needs” ⁹.

Incite reports a check size range of $100K to $5M with a sweet spot of $1.5M ¹⁰.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 76 verified portfolio investments listed on Incite’s portfolio page ¹¹, the following patterns emerge:

Sector breakdown (76 investments): - Climate and clean energy: 18 of 76 investments (24%) — including direct air capture (Heirloom Carbon, Charm Industrial, Ebb Carbon, Carbon Capture), clean energy hardware (Tandem PV, SPAN, Antora Energy, Dig Energy), and decarbonization software (Verse, Clarasight, Absolute Climate) - Food and agriculture: 7 of 76 (9%) — including Mill, Zero Acre Farms, Monarch Tractors, Aigen, Robigo, Farm Raise, Crowd Cow - Recycling, waste, and materials: 7 of 76 (9%) — including AMP Robotics, Rubi Laboratories, Blue Lake Packaging, Cove, Carbon Wave - Health and biotech: 7 of 76 (9%) — including Kindbody, Prenuvo, Trial Library, Curve Biosciences, Probably Genetic, Certis Oncology, Helix Nanotechnologies - Financial services: 5 of 76 (7%) — including Nav, Altro, Petal, Ellevest, Gusto - Transportation: 2 of 76 (3%) — Everrati, Roadio - Consumer/retail: 3 of 76 (4%) — Mejuri, KOTN, Kinfield - Software/tech: 8 of 76 (11%) — including Emerald Cloud Lab, Matician, Saturday Robotics, Spatial, Learnfully, Co-Pilot - Civic tech and policy: 5 of 76 (7%) — including Plural Policy, Force Metrics, Justice Text, Planet FWD, Commons - Other/general: 14 of 76 (18%)

Key patterns: - Climate and sustainability is the dominant theme across multiple sub-sectors. When combining climate/energy (24%), food/agriculture (9%), recycling/materials (9%), and sustainability-oriented consumer companies, over 40% of the portfolio addresses environmental challenges. - The portfolio reflects a “values-first” filter: nearly every company has an explicit social or environmental mission, consistent with the stated thesis. There is no evidence of pure-play enterprise SaaS or traditional consumer internet investments. - The portfolio skews toward hardware-intensive and deep-tech companies (direct air capture, robotics, energy storage, electric tractors), which is unusual for a family office and consistent with Incite’s stated goal of funding areas that “traditional venture capital largely ignores because of the time it takes to see a return” ¹. - Incite provides patient capital with no LP accountability, allowing longer time horizons than traditional VC ¹. - Geographic concentration appears to be in San Francisco and the broader Bay Area, consistent with the founders’ base. - The portfolio includes several companies at the intersection of climate and food systems (Mill, Zero Acre Farms, Windfall Bio), suggesting this is a particular area of conviction.

Notable gap: Despite the stated focus on “economic opportunity creation,” the fintech/financial services category is relatively small (7% of portfolio). The portfolio is substantially more climate-heavy than the stated thesis would suggest.

Portfolio

This table represents approximately 25 of 76 known portfolio investments. Incite reports supporting over 75 companies to date ⁸. Specific round stages and years are not publicly disclosed for most investments; entries marked “Early Stage” and without years reflect the portfolio listing without detailed round information.

In Their Own Words

Mylavarapu has stated that Incite focuses on backing founders addressing neglected problems: “We’re passionate about discovering first-movers. These are the brilliant, committed people taking critical-but-fragile first steps to address substantive change. If we can be the difference and get these people the initial momentum they need and then we fire up that spark” ¹.

On Incite’s patient capital model, co-founder Matt Rogers has said: “Because we have no accountability to LPs and are more interested in seeing the impact in the world, we provide a much more patient capital” ¹.

On the relationship between technology and social impact, Mylavarapu has stated that “technology can have a tremendously transformative and equalizing effect” by increasing access to information and opportunity ³.

On climate philanthropy, Mylavarapu has said: “Climate is a grand challenge and a grand opportunity” and has described philanthropy as “the ultimate creative capital” that functions like “modeling clay to build anything that the world needs” ⁹.

On building teams, Mylavarapu has stated that “really diverse teams are the strongest teams” and that founders should build a “Board of Advisors” rather than relying on single mentors ³.

On the importance of choosing investors, Mylavarapu has said: “Who you end up in business partnership with is probably one of the most important decisions that you can make” ².

What Founders Say

Nima co-founder Shireen Yates has praised Mylavarapu’s approach as an investor. According to a 2017 TechCrunch article, Yates said that Mylavarapu first reached out when she learned about Nima, and because food allergies run in their family, they immediately understood the pain point being solved. Yates noted that they invested in the seed round and have remained “incredibly active” since, describing them as showing up as partners and considering them “an extension of the company’s team” ¹.

Green Thumb Industries CEO Ben Kovler stated that Mylavarapu’s “impressive background, stellar credentials and combined experience in technology, innovation, social impact and philanthropy bring a unique and invaluable perspective to our board” when announcing her board appointment in 2021 ⁵.

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials found beyond these statements.

Connections

• Board of Directors, Green Thumb Industries (since April 2021) — serves on the Compensation Committee ⁵
• Co-Founder and Board Chair, Arena — organization training progressive political candidates and campaign staff ⁸
• Trustee, Rhodes Trust (since 2020) — received the George Parkin Service Award in 2018 ⁶
• At-Large Member, United Way Worldwide Board of Trustees ⁷
• Former Board Member, Vote.org ⁵
• Former Board Member, B Lab ⁵
• Former Board Member, Paid Leave for the U.S. (PL+US) ⁵
• National Investment Chair, Pete Buttigieg 2020 Presidential Campaign ⁵
• First anchor funder, Carbon180 — alongside Matt Rogers ⁹
• Former Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (2015-2017) ⁴
• Former employee, Square (~2012-2015) — worked alongside Jack Dorsey ⁴

Sources