Management Team
Yigal Kerszenbaum, an expert in venture capital and private equity investing, lifts entrepreneurs shaping the future of work and increasing opportunity for underserved communities struggling to find meaningful employment.
As ETF’s managing director, Kerszenbaum is responsible for growing and empowering a network of the most promising ventures in the employment technology sector. His responsibilities include identifying and assessing investments for the portfolio, fundraising, managing an Advisory Board comprised of funding foundations, and deal brokering. In addition to capital, Yigal provides founders and CEOs in his portfolio with strategic support to more rapidly scale effective solutions, including validating sales/revenue models, making introductions to potential partners, funding pilots to validate measurable impact and improve solutions, and supporting efforts to raise additional capital.
A veteran of the impact investing community, Yigal has executed over $120MM of transactions in impact investments across multiple sectors and geographies, including the United States, Latin America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.
Prior to joining the ETF, Yigal worked at the Rockefeller Foundation where he managed a more than $60M global portfolio of 25 Impact and Program Related Investments (PRI). Through his involvement in the Foundation’s Innovative Finance initiatives to address social challenges at scale, Yigal was instrumental in shaping and implementing a co-investment partnership with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)—the first partnership of its kind for both OPIC and The Rockefeller Foundation.
Previously, he worked as an investment professional on the private equity team at Developing World Markets (DWM), an impact investment fund manager and advisor focused on inclusive finance.
Early in his career, Yigal worked at 57 Stars, a $2B private equity manager/advisor focused on private equity partnerships in emerging markets. Yigal started his career as an entrepreneur, founding a language school in Cordoba, Argentina.
Lending his expertise to up and coming social entrepreneurs, Yigal serves as a judge for several investment competitions, is an adviser to the MIINT (MBA Impact Investing Network and Training) and to TechStars Impact Investing.
Yigal received his MBA from Georgetown University and his BA in Economics and Finance from University of California, San Diego where he graduated with Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa Honors. He is Fluent in Spanish, and conversant Hebrew and Portuguese.
