Karl Mehta was selected as a Presidential Innovation Fellow for The 20 Percent Initiative as part of the new White House Presidential Innovation Fellows program. The program pairs top innovators from the private sector, nonprofits, and academia with top innovators in government to collaborate on solutions that aim to deliver significant results in six months.



The 20% Initiative aims to help the U.S. government get 20% more bang for our buck through a coalition of federal agencies that promote the use of efficient electronic payment transfer methods.

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This is one in a series introducing 18 Fellows working on five initiatives that are part of the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows program.

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Mehta is a Silicon Valley-based serial entrepreneur, engineer & inventor with more than 18 years of experience in founding, building, and funding technology companies in the US and international markets.

Most recently, Mehta was the founder & CEO of PlaySpan Inc. (acquired by Visa), a global leader in micro-payments with a monetization platform supporting 100+ local payment options across 180 countries.

In 2010, Mehta won the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award from Ernst & Young for Northern California.

He is also the founder of Grassroots Innovation Network (GrIN), a public-private partnership platform that brings the startup ecosystem and Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurship know-how to millions of college students nationwide.

Mehta is a board member of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Chapman University, Pratham Bay Area, Source Ventures, and Simpa Networks (solar energy on pay-as-you-go for developing markets). He is an active angel investor in the clean-tech and internet sectors.

Mehta lives with his wife and two children in Fremont, CA.

Follow him on Twitter at @ProjectTwenty