Services

MERSTRA — FOUNDATION FOR FOUNDERS & ECOSYSTEMS

We build the institutions that build the economy.

Merstra is an operator-led practice for founders, funders and governments — sitting where strategy meets the messy work of actually running a program.

2014

FOUNDED

48

TEAM MEMBERS

4

CONTINENTS ACTIVE

62+

PROGRAMS DELIVERED

Turn the region's ambition into programs that produce measurable outcomes.

Sovereign wealth is unlocking a generational bet on innovation. What's rarely in the room is the operating layer — the people who know how to convert capital and policy into running programs that touch real founders. We are that layer.

Our mission

Operating principles

Four rules we don't bend.

Operators, not observers

Every partner has built and run a program before writing a strategy about one. That order matters.

Outcomes are the contract

We anchor engagements on measurable movement — capital raised, startups scaled, jobs created — not deliverables.

The room is smaller than it looks

Regional ecosystems are built by tight networks. We treat every mandate as a long-term relationship, not a project.

Playbooks compound

Twelve years of program IP, refined cohort by cohort. Nothing we ship starts from a blank page.

IMPACT

Twelve years of running the room.

A short version of a longer story. The parts that shaped how the studio works today.

2013

Founded

Two operators, one thesis: as region needed a studio, not another consultancy.

2013

Founded

Two operators, one thesis: as region needed a studio, not another consultancy.

2016

First national mandate

Designed and ran a sovereign-backed incubator from RFP to first cohort.

2016

First national mandate

Designed and ran a sovereign-backed incubator from RFP to first cohort.

2019

Programs practice

Formalised our program-management operating system across grant, accelerator and market-access mandates.

2019

Programs practice

Formalised our program-management operating system across grant, accelerator and market-access mandates.

2022

Cross-border

Opened corridor programs across GCC, MENA and East Africa.

2022

Cross-border

Opened corridor programs across GCC, MENA and East Africa.

2025

Research arm

Research arm Launched the Merstra Knowledge Hub — public research from the field.

2025

Research arm

Research arm Launched the Merstra Knowledge Hub — public research from the field.

FEATURED PROGRAMS

The partners in the room with you.

We show up the same way regardless of who signs the engagement.

Mittu Tigi

Director

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Ebin Ephrem Elavathingal

Director

Eskilstuna, Sweden

Jissy George

Program Manager

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Balachandran S Elayath

Program Manager

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

Kavita Singh

Head - Marketing

India

WHY MERSTRA

We show up the way we wish our first advisors had.

Operator DNA

Our team has built, funded and run ventures — not just advised them.

Program-first

We design and operate programs end-to-end, not one-off workshops.

Regional depth

Ground presence and partners across 14 countries and three continents.

Outcome-locked

Every engagement is scoped to measurable capital, market or capability outcomes.

TESTIMONIALS

Words from the people we work beside.

"Working with Merstra has been more than a partnership — it's been a shared mission to build lasting ecosystem infrastructure."
Amara Osei
Founder,
Northgate Labs
"Working with Merstra has been more than a partnership — it's been a shared mission to build lasting ecosystem infrastructure."
Amara Osei
Founder,
Northgate Labs
"Working with Merstra has been more than a partnership — it's been a shared mission to build lasting ecosystem infrastructure."
Amara Osei
Founder,
Northgate Labs
"Their program design gave our incubator a structure we could actually scale across three countries."
Daniel Reyes
Program Director,
Vantree Collective
"Their program design gave our incubator a structure we could actually scale across three countries."
Daniel Reyes
Program Director,
Vantree Collective
"Their program design gave our incubator a structure we could actually scale across three countries."
Daniel Reyes
Program Director,
Vantree Collective
"Precise, consultative, and genuinely invested in the founders they support."
Priya Nair
Managing Partner,
Fieldstone Capital
"Precise, consultative, and genuinely invested in the founders they support."
Priya Nair
Managing Partner,
Fieldstone Capital
"Precise, consultative, and genuinely invested in the founders they support."
Priya Nair
Managing Partner,
Fieldstone Capital

ABOUT MERSTRA

A foundation built by operators, for the systems they wish existed.

Merstra Foundation was set up in 2014 to close a specific gap: ambitious ventures and public bodies had access to capital and advice, but not to program infrastructure that could compound outcomes over time.

Today we operate as a foundation — not-for-profit, program-first, embedded across 14 countries — designing the connective tissue between founders, funds, hubs and governments.

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