Kia Kavoosi

Kia Kavoosi is a Director, Impact Investments at Social Finance. In this role, he partners with investors, philanthropists, investees, and technical experts to improve measurable outcomes for underserved and low-income populations by utilizing innovative financing models. Kia is most actively involved in managing the Google Career Certificates Fund and other workforce development & economic mobility initiatives.

Prior to joining Social Finance, Kia worked in the impact investing team at MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. At MaRS, Kia advised on impact investments and structured outcomes-based transactions for governments, foundations, corporations and institutional investors across Canada and globally. He also supported venture capital investments into early-stage companies with strong social impact and financial return potential.

Kia started his career in the investment banking division at Goldman Sachs and Macquarie Group, and subsequently moved into private equity investing at Next Capital (formerly Macquarie Direct Investment). In these roles, he developed his investment and operational management experience across the retail, food & beverage, industrials, and technology sectors. Kia has also worked closely with early-stage ventures in the legal tech, edtech, nanotech and medical sectors. He has work experience in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, Japan, Singapore, and Cameroon.

Kia earned his MBA from the University of Cambridge specializing in social innovation and entrepreneurship, and led the Social Innovation Group at Cambridge, which included project work with the CDC Group, the U.K. government’s development finance institution, in its equity investments team focused on ventures in Africa. Kia also holds a BCom (Finance) and LLB from the University of New South Wales. He completed his law degree at McGill University and has been admitted as a lawyer in Australia.