15 social ventures in India get opportunity to access INR 25 lakh matched equity funding

Of the 116 ambitious early-stage social enterprises that applied for the Artha Venture Challenge (AVC) – a national competition designed to identify, select and provide the best socially focused ventures access to mentoring, connections and funding – the final cohort of 15 enterprises has now been announced.

The finalists for the AVC are Aakar Innovations Pvt. Ltd, Arogya Finance, Avani Bio Energy, Banka BioLoo, Boond Engineering & Development Pvt. Ltd, Edubridge Learning Pvt. Ltd, Jackonblock Facility Services Pvt. Ltd, KNIDS GREEN Pvt. Ltd, NextDrop, MicroGraam Marketplace Pvt. Ltd, Sakhi Unique Rural Enterprise, Sanchayan Suraksha Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Sevamob, Tamul Plates Marketing Pvt. Ltd and Villgro Innovation Marketing Pvt. Ltd.

These finalists will not only receive extensive capacity building support but also the opportunity to access INR 25 lakh of equity funding, if matched by the same in co-investment within the next eight months. That co-investment may take the form of grant, equity or debt, though the AVC matched piece must necessarily be in equity form.

Learn more about the final cohort of the AVC by visiting www.arthaventurechallenge.com

To ensure that the final cohort are able to secure the external round of funding necessary to access the matched round of INR 25 lakh, innovation accelerators Ennovent and Villgro will be working closely with each of the finalists to provide them customised support.

These organisations will enable the final cohort to build a compelling growth story by providing access to expert mentors, facilitating exposure to a closed network of impact investors, offering investment readiness support and profiling them as one of the most high-potential social entrepreneurs in India.

Currently, many high-potential social ventures fail because of an inability to access the funding and resources required to grow operations and scale impact. The AVC, which invited entrepreneurs that have completed proof of concept and are seeking growth investment, aims to address this missing middle in social finance by providing access to high-risk patient capital and customised business support.

Audrey Selian, Director, Artha Platform and the newly formed Artha Networks Inc., comments, “The Artha Venture Challenge is a pioneering initiative for early-stage social ventures in India. We are excited to be announcing this final cohort and providing them the capacity building support they require to secure their lead investors, which will in turn trigger our matched round of Rs 25 lakh. Our goal is to shift the center of gravity in this space, to empower the entrepreneurs through our process, and then to encourage our peer impact investors to take action. This is indeed an opportunity for us all to replace talk with action.”

Pradeep Kashyap, Founder of MART who was on the jury panel for the AVC adds, "It was an interesting learning experience. Some of the plans from the ventures were of the highest order."

The Artha Venture Challenge is funded by the Artha Platform, whose core funder/founder is the team at Rianta Capital Zurich. Inspired by the UK Big Venture Challenge where 10 early-stage co-investment deals were closed within 10 months, the Artha Venture Challenge aims to similarly stimulate the early growth stage social investment market, except with an exclusive Indian focus. By strengthening seed investment in social ventures in India and helping investors de-risk through co-investment, the AVC will strategically deploy capital and resources where they matters the most.

Learn more about the final cohort of the AVC by visiting www.arthaventurechallenge.com

About Artha Platform:
The Artha Platform is an online community and website dedicated to supporting efficient interactions between impact investors/donors, capacity building support organizations, local intermediary organizations serving the market, and the social entrepreneurs working on or in India. Artha is a bespoke technology solution and architecture designed to support ambitious social entrepreneurs in raising investment, get past the pain of due diligence and scale their ventures; it is now being developed by Artha Networks Inc., a newly formed entity designed to expand its geographical scope. The Artha Platform is an independent initiative supported by Rianta Capital Zurich.

About Ennovent:
Ennovent is an innovation accelerator. We provide services to accelerate for-profit innovations for sustainability in low-income markets in developing countries. We specialise in helping clients discover enterprises with novel solutions, develop business models to start-up enterprises, provide finance by facilitating early-stage investments and grow operations to scale profit and impact. Since 2008, Ennovent has worked with over 4,800 Network members, 15 Circle members and 10 Solution clients to accelerate over 80 innovations in 10 countries.

About Villgro:
Villgro Innovations Foundation is one of India’s oldest and foremost social enterprise incubators, supporting innovators and social entrepreneurs during their early stages of growth with funding, mentoring and networks to create scalable and sustainable businesses across sectors including health, energy, education and agriculture. Since 2001, Villgro has incubated 65 such enterprises, generated around 4000 jobs, and touched over 5 million rural lives.

Media Contact:
Perzen Patel
Communications Manager, Ennovent
Email: perzen.patel@ennovent.com

ennovent GmbH
Neubaugasse 11/14,
1070 Vienna, Austria

This release was published on openPR.