This Article First Appeared In Forbesindia On March 10, 2023
TCM Sundaram raises funds for breakfast, lunch and dinner. As a venture capitalist, and the founder and vice chairman of Chiratae Ventures, he has dabbled in over $1 billion in assets under management (AUM). But it’s a tiny corpus of ₹52 lakh, which he has raised for charity by running marathons in the past four years, that would perhaps give him greater joy.
Through his family foundation, Sundaram, or TCM as he is known, channels the money towards NGOs that work for, among other causes, higher education and palliative care for cancer. In the Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM) 2023 alone, his fourth, he raised nearly ₹17 lakh towards rehabilitating and skilling the physically challenged as well as cancer care. “My father was the first graduate in the family and the first chartered accountant in the community. Education enabled him to give us a better life. Later in life, we lost him to cancer within a year. Hence, these causes are dear to me,” he says. “When I run marathons to raise funds, I see it as generating awareness about these causes and encouraging people to contribute towards them.”