Sonam Velani

Sonam Velani is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Streetlife Ventures, an early stage fund investing at the intersection of cities and climate.

Sonam has spent her career across the world and across the public and private sectors connecting the dots between cities, climate, and capital. She has financed $10 billion of transportation and energy infrastructure projects at Goldman Sachs, helped build coastal protection and water systems across Asia at the World Bank, launched electric drone logistics solutions across Africa at Zipline, and developed New York City’s $15 billion Green New Deal at the NYC Mayor’s Office.

Sonam also runs the Climate Tech Cities ecosystem of 20,000+ climate rockstars, the Parachute creative storytelling platform on climate solutions and investment opportunities in cities, and is a global speaker on urban climate action. Sonam was recently featured in Business Insider as one of the world’s top 10 women leaders solving the climate crisis and is on the Crain’s Business 40 Under 40 List.

The first in her family to go to college, Sonam received a full scholarship for her BA in Government, Economics, and Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University. In my free time I enjoy Citibiking, museum hopping, watching reruns of the West Wing, and getting lost in new cities and new conversations – 70 countries, thousands of people, and still counting on both fronts!