[2][3][4] Shah was born in Ahmedabad, India, and raised in Minnesota,[5][6] graduating from Irondale High School.

[7] At the London School of Economics he received a research grant to study the microfinance work of the Self-Employed Women's Association.

[9] Building on his college interest in microfinance, Shah took a sabbatical from PayPal in 2004 to prototype a concept of person-to-person microlending in India.

[10][11] Upon his return to Silicon Valley in 2005, Shah joined Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley in launching Kiva and scaling it into a global organization.

[3][4] In addition to serving as president of Kiva, Shah sits on the boards of other non-profit of organizations, including Center for Humane Technology, Change.org Foundation, Watsi, and VolunteerMatch.