ShelterTech ecosystem
As the world’s leading platform for affordable housing innovation, spanning four continents, ShelterTech is advancing a thriving, connected affordable housing ecosystem to answer today’s most pressing shelter challenges.
ShelterTech is built on Habitat for Humanity’s decades of global experience as a leading affordable housing organization. Leveraging Habitat’s extensive network and expertise, the platform catalyzes key industry players, including investors, financial institutions, corporations, technical experts and more.
Join our ecosystem
Are you passionate about the affordable housing sector? Take the first step in becoming a mentor, partner or investor by filling out our inquiry form.
Explore our ecosystem
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Jorge is an electronic engineer and specializes in mass production machinery. He started the Terroformaciones project when looking for a new way to make conventional bricks.
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Kongngy Hav is a well-known social entrepreneur in Cambodia, leading a social business called My Dream Home to address the country’s chronic shelter shortages through the production of affordable, eco-friendly and easy-to-construct interlocking bricks. Their work helps low- and middle-income people to afford a cleaner, safer, cheaper and more friendly houses, thereby improving their overall living standards. Everyone should be entitled to a decent home to live in and care for their family. With his direction and leadership, the social business has contributed to building more than 1000 affordable homes in Cambodia creating better living conditions, creating employment opportunities for local people and reducing CO2 emissions.
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Prasoon Kumar, after having designed over 10,000 homes as an architect during 10 years of corporate career, founded BillionBricks to help solve the global housing crisis.
BillionBricks is building solar home communities that finance themselves with the energy they produce and sell. Singapore President’s Design Awardee, TEDx speaker, Urban Land Institute’s 40 under 40, Prasoon has won numerous global awards for his work.
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Andrew Kyaw grew up in a rural area before moving to Yangon, Myanmar, for university, where he studied information systems. Before founding Nay Yar, Andrew worked in business development and sales for international companies.
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Isaac is an entrepreneur who seeks to find community problems and create solutions for them by rallying other people to buy into building solutions. He is the co-founder and CEO of The VLage and Co-liv ambassador for Kenya and Africa. He has professional background in accounting and business development.
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Angela brings 12 years of real estate and property experience to her role as co-founder of Gradana, a pioneer organization in P2P for property related financing. At Grandana, she refines and develops the business model and leads the business development, partnership, marketing and public relations as well as legal aspects of the company. Prior to Gradana, she has worked for Sinar Mas Land and other leading Indonesian groups, such as Sampoerna and Salim focusing in property and real estate as well. Angela is a graduate of San Jose State University, majoring in business administration with concentration in international business.
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Jose Raul is a regional leader in strategic planning, new business development and access to new markets. He leads through understanding the competitive environment, management of business intelligence and the establishment of commercial and marketing plans supported by cutting-edge technology.
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Fauzal Rizki is the CEO and co-founder of Sampangan, an Indonesia-based circular technology company that converts waste into various sustainable materials for use in sustainable construction, organic agriculture, healthcare and more. Fauzal studied studied computer science and started his career building CIMB X – a digital team of one of the largest banks in South East Asia – before joining fintech payment company Xendit, one of fastest growing Y Combinator startups. He later helped banking offline distribution from Singapore-based Socash, to set up operations in Indonesia from the ground up. Muhammad Fauzal started his journey in the social enterprise sector by creating a Makesense chapter in Indonesia, a Paris-based social enterprise platform promoting citizen engagement in solving social issues. He later joined Impact Hub Jakarta as a community member and program participant. Today he is building Sampangan, trying to build a world where all waste is converted into value, creating a decentralized and self-sustainable circular economy.
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Zahra Zanjani received her degree in AB Management Economics from Ateneo de Manila University in 2017. Following this, she worked as a sales director for FC Group of companies, managing and operating FC Floor Center and FC Tile Depot. Building on her experience in the Philippine construction industry, she co-founded CUBO Modular Inc and is currently the Chief Operating Officer.
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Soe Win Zaw is a certified civil engineer and founder of Pounamu Bamboo Design and Construction Company Limited. Pounamu was founded in 2015 with the principal objective of developing the bamboo construction industry in Myanmar. Zaw is also working on affordable housing design and construction with bamboo for urban and rural areas. In 2019, he won the Community Initiatives and Spatial Planning prize as part of the Asia Pacific Housing Forum Innovation Awards.
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Nataly is a dedicated professional with more than eight years of experience in sales and marketing with high knowledge in chemical sciences. She has demonstrated capabilities to achieve profit and loss targets and increase revenue while creating customer intimacy and building long-term relationships. She works on diverse multidisciplinary and cross-regional projects in a company with a worldwide impact and powerful goals to drive solutions to global challenges. She is a native speaker of Spanish and fluent in Portuguese and English with an international background.
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Cristhian Aldayuz is a professional, father and entrepreneur with experience in business management, team management, project development and control, and strategic business consulting. He has more than 15 years of experience working with over 20 brands of different sizes across various sectors, including customer service, production, event management, entertainment, management, food service and NGOs. He has advised and guided over 100 projects, and he currently teaches entrepreneurship and acts as manager of the Chrysalis Business Incubator at PUCV. He is also a commercial engineer from the Federico Santa María Technical University and a business mentor for Foundation for Knowledge Madri+d.
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José is a strategic, visionary, results-focused leader and industrial engineer with an M.B.A. in finance and marketing. He currently works at Dow as senior sales manager, site leader and new business developer.
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As member of the executive board, Johann leads the Hilti Foundation’s work on safe and affordable housing. A priority is the promotion of pioneering technical solutions that help families in need improve their housing situation as a basis to start their journey into a better, self-determinant life. In earlier positions with institutions like the German Federal Chancellery, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Robert Bosch Foundation, Johann gained strong understanding of related fields, including EU and international politics, good governance and the global civil society. Following studies in Germany, Poland and Hungary, he earned his Master of Public Policy degree from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.
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José is passionate about Hilti’s purpose to create enthusiastic customers and build a better future through innovation and the direct sales model. He is curious, disciplined and loves to work with people to help them to unleash their full potential.
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Dante Cárdenas works with cross functional teams at both an executive and non-executive level, using strong analytical skills. He has an MBA and experience in project management, marketing, process reengineering and e-business.
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Luis Felipe Cárdenas is an industrial engineer with an MBA and professional experience in various finance fields, with a focus in banking entities, financial planning, opening new businesses, retail and management of human resources. He works as a team member with the mindset of a leader and can make decisions under pressure. He has excellent personal and commercial relationships and the capacity for analysis and synthesis. He’s an adaptable, persistent and results-oriented entrepreneur and mentor with a social and sustainable vision.
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Carolina enjoys the challenge of improving processes and products, making them more agile, intuitive, and frictionless while ensuring to always keep the user at the center of any decision. She approaches problems with an analytical mindset, allowing data to drive most of her decisions, while also recognizing the power of common sense and intuition to thrive in ambiguity. Her leadership style is to delegate, promote a culture of ownership with an attitude of “make mistakes fast and correct them even faster,” and manage a balance between a bias for action and strategically developing the future.
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Pablo Daza is a civil engineer with masters degrees in environmental engineering and business administration. He’s a professor of civil engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Ecuador and a specialist at Plan International. Here, he directs a humanitarian aid project focused on improving water, sanitation and hygiene services in schools that host the Venezuelan migrant population. He has experience working with the Inter-American Development Bank operating loan and technical cooperation projects for the infrastructure, environment and disaster risk management sectors. His volunteer work includes mentoring affordable housing entrepreneurs and promoting gender equity and corporate sustainability.
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Juan Saldarriaga Fernandez is an MBA graduate focused on disruptive businesses, innovation and entrepreneurship. Juan has more than eight years of experience as a civil engineer and project manager for large construction projects, including in strategic sourcing and digital transformation. He is an entrepreneurial soul, always looking for opportunities and solutions to everyday problems, and constantly searching for people and companies’ insights, understanding what they want but do not know.
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Raúl Gajardo has skills in systemic thinking, graphic design, innovation and entrepreneurship. He has experience in marketing, project development and business development. He emphasizes collaboration, sustainability, teamwork, continuous improvement and motivation.
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Carlos Fernando Garces has a special interest in the area of project management and public policies for social housing and social integration. He has a master in construction administration from Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. His specialties include social housing and social integration projects.
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Shunsuke Isaji is an education marketing manager at Autodesk, responsible for APAC, focusing on Japan and India. He is based in Tokyo, Japan. He plays a lead role in the planning and execution of campaigns, program experience, promoting Autodesk offerings and reaching out to academic communities and the market. He started his career in Australia and has worked at global companies across the IT industry, including HP and Salesforce.com. He has 18 years’ broad marketing experience.
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Maricen serves as the liaison for the projects of Hilti Foundation in Asia which covers affordable housing and technology, economic empowerment and music for social change. She is also the president and chairperson of the board of trustees for Base Bahay Foundation in the Philippines, an initiative supported by the Hilti Foundation. Prior to Base, Maricen presents over 30 years of sales, marketing and operations experience covering consumer goods, banking and real estate, and different senior management positions. She is also engaged in entrepreneurial ventures, continues to support private relief and livelihood projects, and is focused on her calling for nation building.
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Alexander Kaltenböck is a leader in Hilti’s Northern Europe Marketing team and is passionate about cracking problems, people development and customer engagement.
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Sasikanth is a mechanical engineer graduate and has 10 years of experience in the software industry in quality assurance and support services. He is particularly interested in training others in his areas of work and is always willing to share knowledge.
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Alejandro oversees Paladin’s activities in South America (excluding Brazil), Central America and the Caribbean and serves on the firm’s investment committee. A native of Uruguay, he has over three decades of management and real estate development experience, including senior executive positions at some of the largest residential development and construction firms in the world. He was previously the director of residential development for Tourism Development & Investment Company in Abu Dhabi, where he led the development of a nearly US$2 billion project. Alejandro also held senior positions with U.S. homebuilders such as KB Home, Shea Homes and Pulte Homes, most recently as a division president of the latter. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelors degree in architecture and received a MBA and a masters degree in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Patricio Lloret has experience in public policy, planning, habitat and housing, project management and the social sector. He has skills in information society, electronic government, telecommunications, tourism, human talent and research and development. Patricio has a Master in Business Administration from Central American Institute of Business Administration, with specializations in sustainable development, industry and technology. He also has a Master of Science in public policy from the University College London.
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With a background in administration at FEA-USP, sustainability at UNICAMP and conflict mediation at Palas Athena, Mariana is the Head of Housing at Artemisia.
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Felipe López Mora is a business administrator with a master’s degree in business strategy. With impact results from corporate management, Felipe works to transform companies from illiquidity and unprofitability to sustainable growth with paths to reach their financial objectives. Felipe has 20 years’ experience in the private, academic and government sectors, including in leadership positions. He is on the board of directors of the SEDHANK Business Group, where he is in charge of defining and structuring the corporate strategy for long-term growth and sustainability.
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María Teresa has 28 years of experience in leadership, design and mobilization of capital for innovative market-based development initiatives and housing microfinance programs. Her consulting experience includes business models, financial product development, partnership development, capital mobilization and as capacity building facilitator.
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Carmen Mosquera is Senior Investment Officer at Inter-American Development Bank which works to improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean by conducting extensive research and providing loans, grants and technical assistance.
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Jyoti Patel is a multilingual private sector investment professional with more than 10 years of experience in equity and fixed-income investments, financial analysis, microfinance and governance. Jyoti is highly skilled in analyzing large and complex financial data sets to implement security valuation, risk management and trading strategy models for investment.
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Angela Pinzón is an expert in entrepreneurship, consultant and international speaker on technology, innovation and gender equality. She’s an electronic engineer with projects focused on hardware development and artificial intelligence. She is a winner of the 2018 Ingenio awards for the greatest business innovation in Colombia; a WeXChange finalist; and Comet Competition 2019 finalist. Angela is co-founder of Quira ISP and DashFleet.
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Juan Felipe is passionate about digital business, technology startups and e-commerce, and he’s a believer in dynamic environments. He has experience in fast-growing start-ups, market intelligence, operations and growth/expansion. He’s motivated by new challenges and focused on results, exceeding goals and developing high impact strategies.
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Jorge is an experienced senior account manager with a demonstrated history of working in the chemicals industry and an MBA focused in marketing/marketing management from ITESM. He is skilled in negotiation, strategic planning, international business and business development.
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Kirpal Sachdev has extensive experience in customer success, CRM, strategic technology, transformation implementations, digitalization solutions and customer retentions in industries relating to banking, travel, media, telecoms, oil and gas, and mining. He has diverse professional experience in international settings and is a persuasive communicator and excellent negotiator who is capable of translating technical ideas into actionable outcomes.
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Fernanda is a commercial engineer with a masters degree in innovation and design from the Adolfo Ibáñez University, as well as a cyclist and seamstress by passion. She is motivated by ideas, creativity and disruptive minds — her goals emphasize contributing to communities and the ecosystem through innovation and dynamic entrepreneurship.
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Joaquin Silva is CEO of Buping, a company that helps innovative businesses, entrepreneurs and institutions develop strategic and innovative thinking to support their projects and companies.
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Anna Skrypka is a creative and strategically focused digital marketing and E-commerce professional with extensive experience launching new products and building growth strategies in the automotive and technology industries across the Asia Pacific region. Anna is able to see a big picture and convert an idea into a scalable solution, leveraging cross-functional team collaboration and networks. She is passionate about building best-in-class customer experiences, cinematic storytelling and empowering people to achieve results. Over the past three years, she has focused on helping mission-driven startups to scale their businesses.
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Andrzej Widz is passionate about people, good with numbers, has strong cultural sensitivity and respect for environment, and is driven to create an impact. He has 20 years of professional experience across cultures and continents in business development and marketing strategies, including pricing, multi-channel sales and CRM.
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Elizabeth Acuña is principal at Angel Ventures Peru, a venture capital company that seeks to develop startups through investment, incubation, strategy and more.
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Anurita Bhatnagar is a research-oriented academic with over 10 years of core consulting experience and over five years of experience in built environment and urban infrastructure domains. She holds an MBA from University of Cincinnati, as well as a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur. She is currently pursuing a PhD in built environment, with a focus on exploring economic activity and resilient growth in Class I Indian cities.
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Matías Lanus is vice president of Elevar Equity and served on the steering committee for the ShelterTech accelerator in the Andean region.
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Corinne has 18 years of professional experience in multinational and family companies across various sectors, including automotive, construction and mass consumption. She worked for several years in the marketing, sales and communication areas before forming and leading the corporate social responsibility area at Lafarge Ecuador. She also worked at Union Andina De Cementos where she was the first woman to be part of the Steering Committee. Corinne is the president of the Business Network for an Ecuador Free of Child Labor. She’s also a foreign trade counselor for the French Embassy in Ecuador. In 2018, she decided to leave the corporate world with a vision: to create the first impact investment fund in Ecuador to support environmental and social enterprises in the country. That was how CREAS ECUADOR was born: Responsible Capital for Environmental and Social Entrepreneurship of Ecuador. Corinne obtained her MBA from the ESSEC Business School in France and also holds a masters degree in corporate social responsibility from IE University in Spain.
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Dhaval Monani is an investor, practitioner, researcher and public policy advocate in affordable housing. Dhaval has extensive experience in India, the Pacific, Africa and Southeast Asia. He works closely with governments in India and globally on structuring PPP and private sector incentives in housing, and has developed some of India’s most cost effective commercial housing. He is also a board member and advisor to to start ups in the real estate, proptech and green energy.
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Roberto is an accomplished and prolific innovator, blending strong business acumen with an entrepreneurial drive to support thriving and sustainable local economies. With a strong track record in business advisory and impact investment, Roberto is renowned for his ability to think creatively and draw from his unparalleled network to deliver outcomes that meet social, environmental and economic expectations of clients and communities alike. He has over 30 years of experience in senior management roles and has worked extensively with a broad range of stakeholders and clients across the private, government, and NGO sectors globally. A serial entrepreneur, Roberto is deeply involved in the innovation and startup ecosystem within Peru and the broader Latin American region and constantly pursues new projects across wide areas of interest. Roberto is particularly attracted by green and blue economy projects, such as those relating to sustainable forestry, clean energy and circular economy, among others. Roberto is also the co-founder and a partner of Asesorandes — a boutique consulting firm based in Lima, Peru — that specializes in financial services, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and business development.
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Corporate and foundation partners
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The Autodesk Foundation supports the design and creation of innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. The foundation supported ShelterTech’s Southeast Asia accelerator, including sharing Autodesk’s expertise through learning sessions and mentorship.
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The Dotson Family Fund is based in the United States and is a sponsor of the ShelterTech platform.
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Dow is a materials science leader committed to delivering innovative and sustainable solutions for customers in packaging, infrastructure and consumer care. Dow provided mentorship to the ShelterTech startups in India, including access to their research and development experts and tours of their state-of-the-art technology center. Dow also extended mentorship to startups in the Southeast Asia and Andean region cohorts.
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With the mission of “empowering people to lead an independent and self-determined life,” the Hilti Foundation supports activities and projects focusing on affordable housing and technology, economic empowerment, and community arts and culture around the globe. The foundation has supported ShelterTech’s accelerators in Kenya, India, Southeast Asia and the Andean region, both in the planning of the program, as well as providing mentorship from their managers and experts. The Hilti Foundation is also a global sponsor of Habitat’s Housing Innovation Awards, presented through Habitat’s regional housing forums.
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The IKEA Foundation is an independent philanthropy focused on creating brighter lives on a liveable planet through its grant giving efforts. The IKEA Foundation has been a sponsor of ShelterTech’s accelerators in Kenya and India.
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The Keith V. Kiernan Foundation is a family foundation based in the United States and sponsor of the ShelterTech accelerators in Southeast Asia and the Andean region.
Acceleration partners
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BDO was one of ShelterTech’s anchor partners for the Kenya accelerator.
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Brigade REAP is our acceleration partner for the ShelterTech Track in India.
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CIIE was ShelterTech’s anchor partner for the India accelerator.
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Global Urban Village was one of ShelterTech’s anchor partners for the accelerator in Southeast Asia.
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La Mezcladora Innovation Hub is our acceleration partner for the ShelterTech Track in Latin America.
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Pangea Accelerator was one of ShelterTech’s anchor partners for the Kenya accelerator.
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Plug and Play is ShelterTech’s anchor partner for the sub-Saharan Africa regional accelerator.
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Village Capital was ShelterTech’s anchor partner for the accelerators in Mexico and the Andean region of South America.
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Villgro Philippines was one of ShelterTech’s anchor partner for the Southeast Asia regional accelerator.