Pranav Chopra

Indian-born, New Zealand raised, Finance graduate, ex-Banker, social entrepreneur. Life goals have always revolved around doing well whilst doing good and have had an interesting ride in starting off a tea company empowering refugees to getting recognised by The King for an enterprise promoting opportunity and social mobility.

How did IE help you get to where you are today?

IE ignited the entrepreneurial spark and developed on my business acumen to launch NEMI Teas after completing the IMBA in November 2014. Having specialised within Social Enterprise during the IMBA I've been able to implement approaches to scaling impact whilst growing commercially.

In what way is your work impacting the world?

At NEMI Teas our mission is to tackle SDG #8 of Decent Work & Economic Growth and SDG #10 of Reduced Inequalities as we provide training and employment to refugees giving them access to equal opportunities, and become part of an inclusive society, not financially excluded from the system, and not live in poverty as they look to settle in the UK.

What drove you to work for a cause that believes in the greater good?

A huge driving force that drove me to set up NEMI Teas to tackle inequality amongst refugee communities in the UK is really well captured in this quote by Pierre Omidyar that “everyone is born equally capable but lacks equal opportunity”. I am a migrant myself to the UK and have seen how people have an unconscious bias about certain groups of people so it has been an area where I have always a felt a pull towards making a change and ensuring we all in the UK have access to equal opportunities.