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[Impact investments 2013] Find out which social enterprises received funding last year

[Impact investments 2013] Find out which social enterprises received funding last year

Sunday January 19, 2014 , 7 min Read

Image courtesy: http://www.echoinggreen.org
Image courtesy: http://www.echoinggreen.org

2013 saw a flurry of social impact investment deals and several grants being awarded to non-profits. Funding was made available by angel networks, well-known impact investment firms, foundations and even tech titans like Google. There are primarily seven areas of investment in the social impact sphere:

  • Education
  • Healthcare
  • Housing
  • Financial inclusion
  • Energy
  • Agriculture
  • Water and sanitation

Here’s the list of social enterprises that received funding last year, if we have inadvertently missed any deals, please mention them in the comments section, and we will make sure that we shall update this list.

1) Suryoday Microfinance: A registered Non-Banking Finance Company, engaged in providing loans to women from economically weaker sections raised $4 million from Aavishkar Goodwell and Lok Capital.

2) NEPRA Resource Management: Ahmedabad-based NEPRA Resource Management uses internally developed software to track the movement of waste from collection points to the recycler. NEPRA raised a seed round from Aavishkaar in January 2013 and currently is in the lookout to raise more funds.

3) Intellegrow: A Mumbai-based debt financier to small businesses, the company has raised $2 million from Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

4) Utkarsh Microfinance: A non-banking finance Company (NBFC) in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) that was started to provide financial and non financial services to the unbanked population who have the skill but are in need of capital. Utkarsh has raised $4 million from existing investors Aavishkaar Goodwell, International Finance Corporation and Norwegian Microfinance Initiative.

5) Satin Creditcare Network: A Delhi based Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) providing individual loans to urban shopkeepers to purchase generators for their businesses. Satin has raise funding to the tune of $7.6 million from MicroVest II, LP, ShoreCap II Limited (managed by Equator Capital Partners LLC) and Danish Microfinance Partners K/S (“DMP”).

6) Kinara Capital: The Bangalore based company, which provides capital to micro, small and medium enterprises has raised $1 million, in a round led by Sorenson Impact Foundation.

7) Jack On Block: The facility management and services firm, which provides services ranging from carpentry to plumbing, raised a seed round from Unitus Seed Fund and Mumbai Angels.

8) Saraplast: 3S SHRAMIK is a brand of Saraplast Pvt. Ltd. and a social enterprise based out of Pune in the field of portable sanitation and liquid waste management. The company raised a round a funding from Zurich based ResponsAbility.

9) Milaap: A social lending platform based in Bangalore, Milaap raised a Series A round of $1.1 million led by Singapore based Jungle Ventures. Other investors included Toivo Annus – co-founder & former Head of Engineering at Skype, Lionrock Capital – a Singapore based family investment office, Jayesh Parekh – co-founder of Sony Entertainment Television and existing investor Unitus Seed Fund.

10) Micro Housing Finance Corporation (MHFC): It is a social enterprise focused on the affordable housing segment, land ends amounts upto Rs 5 lakh as loans. MHFC raised $7 million from The India Financial Inclusion Fund, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Unilazer Ventures.

11) Arohan Financial Services: The Kolkata based micro finance company received a capital infusion of $3.5 million from existing stakeholders Aavishkaar Goodwell II and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation besides, Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar, a new private investor .

12) IFMR Rural Channels: The company, which provides financial access to remote rural India has raised equity funding of $5.2 million, from Tata Capital Special Situations Fund (TCSSF).

13) Ananya Finance: Ahmedabad-based Ananya is an institutional lender to microfinance institutions. The company raised just under $3 million in Series A funding from WWB ISIS Fund (ISIS) and IDBI Bank.

14) Agastya: The non-profit is a network of motorbike science labs to address the lack of science equipment and digital resources for rural children. It snagged $500,000 after being announced a winner of the Google Impact Challenge.

15) Digital Green: The social enterprise acts like a video hub and an online knowledge platform to help farmers gain the agricultural skills they need to lower their costs and increase their productivity. As a winner of the Google Impact Challenge, it was awarded $500,000.

16) Janaagraha: The Bangalore-based non-profit was awarded $500,000 for being a Google Impact Challenge winner to create online and mobile apps to connect citizens to their government representatives in urban India.

17) SANA: The social enterprise was also a winner of the Google Impact Challenge getting $500,000 in funding. SANA combines solar-powered micro-ionizing water purification and bio-digesting technology to improve water and sanitation infrastructure for rural villages.

18) Labour Net: The Bangalore-based social enterprise creates sustainable benefits for workers in the informal sector by offering them a platform to access services. LabourNet raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Acumen and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Startupcentral states.

19) GoCoop: A Bangalore-based venture that provides a social marketplace for co-operatives and community-based enterprises to list and sell their produce online. GoCoop raised a seed round from Indian Angel Network and Unitus Seed Fund.

20) Welcare Health Systems Private Ltd: Unitus Seed Fund made an investment in Welcare Health Systems Private Ltd, an affordable eye screening services company. Welcare sets up low-cost eye screening services within existing health centers making them accessible to patients at high-risk for eye diseases (such as diabetes) which could lead to blindness.

21) Bodhicrew Services: The New Delhi-based skill development and job placement services company, secured 30 lakh (around $60,000) in seed funding from Unitus Seed Fund. The funds would be used to streamline the operations and set up offices in other parts of the country.

22) Caravan Craft Retail Private Limited: The Bangalore-based venture snagged funding from Unitus Seed Fund to a tune of about Rs. 1 crore to set up stores and build its supply-chain system.

23) Hippocampus Learning Centres (HLC): Unitus Seed Fund The Bangalore-based company received a seed investment from Unitus Seed Fund. HLC is building affordable rural learning centres serving base of economic pyramid (BOP, income less than $2 per day) children for kindergarten and 1st through 4th level (grade).

24) Janalakshmi Financial Services (Janalakshmi): The Janaagraha founder Ramesh Ramanathan, promoted micro-finance company, has closed a Series D funding of Rs 350 crore. The round was included by a consortium of investors that was led by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia (MSPEA), with Tata Capital Growth Fund and QRG Enterprises, the promoter holding company of Havells India also investing. Existing investors – Citi Venture Capital (CVCI Private Equity), India Financial Inclusion Fund and Vallabh Bhanshali – also participated. Series A investors Lok Capital and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation received an exit through secondary transactions worth Rs 25 crore.

25) iKure: Kolkata-based healthcare provider iKure Techsoft Pvt Ltd two rounds of investment (February and August), the exact amounts invested was not disclosed. The first was from two high net worth individuals (HNIs) – Jayesh Parekh (co-founder of Sony Entertainment Television) and Nandan Maluste (president of CSO Partners) – through the Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I3N). The latest round was made by Calcutta Angels, jointly with I3N. The funds will be used to set up health centre chain in villages across the state.

26) Electronic Payment Services (EPS): Indian-Dutch joint venture Aavishkaar Goodwell invested Rs. 360 million ($6 million) in EPS, which provides electronic payment systems to merchants in Asia. The move follows a previous investment of Rs. 245 million ($4.6 million) in 2012.

27) Swarna Pragati Housing Microfinance: The New Delhi-based company received Rs. 21 crore in funding, which led by Aavishkaar Goodwell II, existing investor NBFC Asia Pragati, owned by one of Asia’s largest Asia investments group PAG (Pacific Alliance Group), has also participated in this round. The company will use the Rs. 21 crore to strengthen its presence in Maharashtra, Odisha, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, as well as to expand into other states.

28) Ketto: Mumbai-based online crowd funding platform Ketto has raised Rs 77 lakh from angel investment from Club ah!, an angel investor network ad Calcutta Angels, a not for profit angel network.

29) OneBreath: Villgro invested an undisclosed sum into OneBreath, a medical device company co-founded by A.VijaySimha, Matthew Callaghan and Bryan Loomas, which is developing an innovative low-cost mechanical ventilator.

30) Ecozen Solutions: The renewable energy company was founded by IIT Kharagpur alumni Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal and Vivek Pandey, and focuses on the applications of distributed power generation for agriculture and rural communities. Villgro invested an undisclosed sum into the company.

31) Artoo: Founded by entrepreneurs Sameer Segal and Indus Chadha, Artoo has developed an android and cloud-based platform for financial institutions, allowing them to take field processes online and track their business with real-time input. Villgro invested an undisclosed sum into the company.