The Khimji Foundation

The Khimji Foundation

The Khimji Foundation was formed in 2017 in Irving, Texas, by Mahmood Khimji, a co-founder of the real estate investment firm Highgate Holdings. The foundation represents the philanthropic and investment vehicle for a family enterprise whose origins trace to the Khimji Group, a diversified Indian-origin conglomerate with operations in jewelry retail, freight forwarding, consumer products, and infrastructure. Dinesh Khimji chairs the flagship jewelry division, while Mitesh and Sumeet Khimji manage day-to-day operations and sister-foundation activities in Odisha, India. The foundation combines direct venture exposure with hard-asset holdings. Its investment posture centers on venture capital, where it has pursued generalist private-market allocations alongside known co-investors. In one documented instance, Vann Avedisian, Mahmood Khimji's business partner at Highgate, co-invested with the foundation in Potbelly Corporation. On the real-asset side, the foundation owns a mixed-use property at 160 East 35th Street in New York City. Operational subsidiaries and inventory include four Khimji Jewellers showrooms in Odisha — at Saheed Nagar (Bhubaneswar), Jajpur Road, and Angul — plus a reported position in gold and diamond inventory, linking the foundation's balance sheet to the family's legacy jewelry trade. Team scale is undisclosed, and the foundation operates without a publicized standalone staff beyond the named Khimji family trustees and directors. The family maintains membership in the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council and the FICCI Odisha State Council, reflecting ongoing operational ties to India's jewelry trade. Two separate Khimji Foundation entities — one in Texas and one in Odisha — execute parallel philanthropic mandates across healthcare, education, women's empowerment, and community development. No recent hiring or vehicle launches were verifiable as of mid-2026. The architecture is distinct: a US-domiciled foundation with direct venture investment powers, cross-border family governance, and a balance sheet that includes both liquid venture positions and tangible inventory from an operating jewelry business. That combination — foundation entity plus operating-company inventory reflected on the same economic balance sheet — departs from the standard grant-making foundation model and gives the Texas entity a hybrid endowment-and-operating-company character.