Laying bets on Entrepreneurial Households in Industrious Communities
Among the misperceptions that have kept capital from flowing to broad sectors of emerging markets: Risks are too high. Customers are too poor. Businesses are too small. There aren’t enough investable deals. Underwriting is too expensive. Such myths are being busted with the availability of more robust market, business, and customer information as Elevar Equity’s […]
Financial Inclusion in India: A 2023 Retrospective, Jyotsna Krishnan
Amidst reduced funding across various sectors, the financial inclusion space in 2023 has shown strength and stability. What has been your assessment of the investment trends in this space in 2023? The financial inclusion businesses thrive on the transaction volume and growth potential of ‘Entrepreneurial Households’TM in the country, which are often outside the priorities […]
Elevar Equity invests USD 4 million in TapFin’s Seed Round, to propel its goal to become India’s leading Sustainability Platform, facilitating India’s Net Zero ambitions
Sustainability platform TapFin, which focuses on providing a variety of services including financing and insurance to startups and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) within the sustainability ecosystem, has secured $4 million in a seed funding round led by Elevar Equity. The Mumbai-based company plans to utilise the freshly acquired capital to fuel its growth […]
Healthcare startup CureBay raises Rs 62 crore in funding round led by Elevar Equity
Access to quality primary healthcare in proximity and at affordable prices is a pronounced pain point for households across India, particularly in rural India. We are proud to continue our journey with CureBay, a company revolutionizing healthcare in medically underserved parts of India, by transforming the patient experience. Our shared understanding of the underserved segment […]
Scale is a question of execution, not vision
The nature of social entrepreneurship, the problems we need to solve, and the challenges of scale have important similarities across both for-profit enterprises and nonprofit organisations. This is most evident in the trajectories of many microfinance institutions, a sector that transformed from a nonprofit activity to banking within a decade. However, when it comes to […]
LEAD School honoured with the Better Tech 2023 Award by the Global Private Capital Association (GPCA)
GPCA (which was founded as the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association – EMPEA) in 2004, is an independent membership organisation representing private capital investors who manage more than USD2t in assets across Asia, Latin America, Africa, Central & Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The Deal Awards were introduced to recognise private capital investments with […]
Fund in Focus: A Deep Dive into Elevar Equity’s 15+ Year Journey of Impactful Investments
Jyotsna Krishnana throws light on how through Elevar’s 15+ year journey, the fund has raised 5 funds, impacted over 50 million households, and catalysed billions in capital for 47 companies. Elevar Equity’s investment themes encompass financial inclusion, education, healthcare, agri-supply chains, and MSME solutions coupled with the “Elevar Method” which has resulted in producing impactful […]
The value of the ‘trust’ currency in agri supply chains – Jyotsna Krishnan and Anil SG
It is no secret that agriculture is today a key focus of India’s socio-economic fabric. There are different approaches being undertaken by public and private entities that are looking to enable, disrupt and transform the agri sector. There is a lot riding on this, given that in India, agriculture accounts for about 42% of India’s workforce, 14% of the GDP and […]
Women in Venture Capital – Johanna Posada
In this chat with Johanna, we get to hear about her breadth of experiences in economics, finance and and what led her to do investing. She also shares her motivation and journey building Elevar, doubling down on the LatAm ecosystem and her aspirations for women in the space.
Live ecommerce startup Peepul Tree, working with local artisans raises $6 million in seed round led by Elevar Equity
Peepul Tree, a live-commerce platform connecting India’s artisans to global consumers, has raised $6 million in a seed funding led by Elevar Equity. Peepul Tree aims to enable the discovery of India’s cultural heritage with immersive shoppable stories and experiences. The funds will be used to onboard content creators to showcase the heritage behind their products. […]
Fintech startup SarvaGram Solutions raises $35 mn in funding round
Fintech startup SarvaGram Solutions has raised USD 35 million (about Rs 290 crore) in a funding round from a clutch of investors including Elevar Equity, Elevation Capital, Temasek and TVS Capital Funds. SarvaGram provides a range of customised financial and capacity-enhancing products to unlock the potential of aspirational rural India. It closed its Series B round at USD […]
Healthtech startup CureBay raises Rs 50 Cr in Series A round led by Elevar Equity
CureBay, the Odisha-based healthtech startup, has raised Rs 50 crore in a Series A round of funding led by Elevar Equity. CureBay, which enables affordable healthcare services and facilities for rural areas, will use this capital for hiring, expanding to new locations, and strengthening its platform. It also plans to launch 100 e-clinics in the […]
For lasting societal impact, ventures have to grow into enduring businesses — Sandeep Farias
Our guest today is Sandeep Farias, founder and managing partner at Elevar Equity, an early-stage VC firm that backs entrepreneurs who are solving large problems for the low and middle-income communities in India and Latin America. In this episode, Sandeep talks about the ‘Elevar Method’ for identifying ideas that could become enduring businesses with significant […]
India’s LEAD School becomes unicorn with fresh $100M in funding
Despite the recent boom of consumer-focused education learning platforms in India, the vast majority of students in the South Asian nation remain unserved. The existing B2C offerings are expensive for most of the students and are heavily skewed towards those in high school preparing for competitive exams. LEAD School, a nine-year-old startup, is addressing this […]
E-commerce platform Nuvemshop becomes Brazil’s latest unicorn
Having raised $500 million in its latest funding round, Brazilian e-commerce platform Nuvemshop has become the latest unicorn startup in Brazil, the company said on Tuesday. The funding arrives just five months after Nuvemshop received an investment of 500 million reais ($95.2 million), bringing its 10-month total to $620 million and highlighting how Latin America’s […]
LEAD School secures $30 million in Series D round fund raise
LEAD School, a major K-12 EdTech player, that transforms affordable private schools via its Integrated System, has raised $30 million in Series D funding round led by Global VC Fund GSV Ventures along with WestBridge, an existing investor. This is GSV Venture’s first major investment in an India-based EdTech firm. The latest funding round will […]
Samunnati acquires agri-supply chain platform Kamatan in share swap deal
Chennai-headquartered agri-fintech start-up Samunnati on Monday announced the acquisition of Kamatan Farm Tech, a farmer-centric agri supply chain platform, for an undisclosed amount. Kamatan Farms is a logistics and supply chain company building inclusive and sustainable agri value chains. Chennai-headquartered agri-fintech start-up Samunnati on Monday announced the acquisition of Kamatan Farm Tech, a farmer-centric agri […]
New $90M Series D Fuels Nuvemshop’s LatAm Expansion
Brazil commerce platform Nuvemshop is back with a $90 million Series D, five months after securing $30 million in Series C funding. Nuvemshop, known as Tiendanube in Spanish-speaking countries, was founded in 2011 and offers a suite of tools around payments, shipping, inventory management and marketing for online businesses. It currently serves nearly 80,000 merchants across Brazil, Argentina and […]
Vistaar Finance raises $30 million from Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO
Vistaar Finance has announced that it has raised Rs 225 crore ($30 million) External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) from FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, making this amongst the larger such transactions in the MSME segment this year. Vistaar has now raised over Rs 550 crore of debt financing in just seven months of this financial […]
Used two wheeler finance specialist WheelsEMI raises Series C funding of Rs 105 crore
Two-wheeler finance specialist WheelsEMI has raised Rs 105 crore in series C funding amid rising demand for used two-wheelers post the pandemic. The Pune-based company secured the funding in a tough fundraising market from its existing investors Faering Capital and Elevar Equity at a decent premium, according to a senior company executive. WheelsEMI lends money for all kinds of two-wheeler purchases, including new two-wheelers in rural […]
Nuvemshop Bags $30M Series C To Scale Latam Online Businesses
Latin American commerce platform Nuvemshop raised $30 million in Series C funding to help small and medium-sized businesses develop and promote their own online presence. With offices in São Paulo and in Buenos Aires, where it is known as Tiendanube, Nuvemshop offers a suite of tools around payments, shipping, inventory management and marketing. Proceeds of the round […]
Edtech Company LEAD School Raises $28Mn In Series C Funding Round
Mumbai-based edtech company LEAD School, that transforms affordable private schools via its Integrated System, has raised US $28 million in a Series C funding round led by Westbridge Capital along with existing investor Elevar Equity. The latest round of funding will be used by the company to accelerate the development and rollout of new product […]
Eyes on the time horizon
In the years we have spent in early-stage equity investing, often backing raw startups and paper plans, our decision to go with a venture accounts for all the usual suspects, like customer insights, market trends and entrepreneur quality. An additional factor that is not spoken of as much is time horizon. While near term perspectives […]
Goldman Sachs, Point72 and others invest $42 million in Mexico’s Credijusto
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Point72 Ventures and others invested $42 million in a Mexico-based online lender called Credijusto.com, the companies said on Thursday. Founded in 2015, Credijusto has originated $90 million in loans and equipment leases to small businesses like dry cleaners and mechanics across Mexico, according to a statement from […]
Indifi Technologies raises $21 million in series C funding round
Indifi Technologies, a Gurugram-based new-age lending company, has raised Rs 145 crore ($21 million) in its series C funding round from the CDC Group, along with existing investors such as Accel India, Omidyar Network, Fair Finance Fund and Elevar Equity, according to data sourced from the Registrar of Companies. Indifi was co-founded in 2015 by Alok Mittal and Siddharth […]
Johanna Posada, Elevar Equity: Driving Impact in Latin America via Venture Capital, Ep 79 ( Podcast )
Originally from Mexico, developing microfinance in Latin America and India was a natural step for Johanna Posada. With over 15 years of experience working in corporate finance, economics, microfinance and investing in emerging markets, Johanna, now based in Seattle, has long been involved in economic development. Currently, as Managing Director and Founder of Elevar Equity, […]
Elevar Equity leads US$5.25M investment in Uruguayan fintech Bankingly
Bankingly, one of Latin America’s leading providers of world-class digital banking channels to financial institutions, announced today that it has raised $5.25Mn in a round led by Elevar Equity, and in which The Rise Fund, through its co-investment partnership with Elevar Equity, and Endeavor Catalyst also participated. Through its software as a service solution (SaaS), […]
Credijusto ve oportunidad fintech en el mercado pyme
Ante la falta de atención financiera al sector de pequeñas y medianas empresas (pymes), hay entidades financieras que han visto un nicho de oportunidad en éste y por medio de tecnología han sabido identificar y atender las necesidades de este segmento. Una de estas instituciones es Credijusto, que de acuerdo con su fundador y director […]
Distinct Commercial Approaches for Scalable Impact: The Elevar Method and The Rise Fund’s journey
Impact capital has long been referred to as “patient capital” or assumed to have subsidized returns and, thus, institutional-minded investors have shied away from entering the space, depriving it of needed capital. This is changing with many more investors, including commercially minded investors, realizing the potential of the impact landscape. Partnerships such as those between […]
Shubham Housing raises Rs. 305 crore from PremjiInvest, Helion, Elevar
Shubham Housing Development Finance Co., which provides housing loans to families with informal incomes, has raised Rs.305 crore in a series D round of funding, a senior company executive said. The funding round was led by PremjiInvest, the family investment arm of Wipro chairman and billionaire Azim Premji, and also saw participation from existing investors […]
Samunnati raises Rs. 150 crore from responsAbility Investments, others
Samunnati Financial Intermediation and Services Pvt. Ltd, a non-banking financial services company (NBFC) focusing on loans to farmers and entities engaged in agriculture, on Tuesday said it raised Rs150 crore in a round led by responsAbility Investments AG, with participation from existing investors Accel Partners and Elevar Equity. responsAbility is a Zurich-headquartered social impact investment […]
Elevar Equity and Ignia make US$7M investment in Tienda Nube/Nuvem Shop
With e-commerce sales in Latin America expected to surpass the $50 billion dollar mark in 2017, Nuvem Shop (https://www.nuvemshop.com.br) has secured $7 million in series B funding to allow small and medium sized businesses to seize this opportunity. The company provides merchants with an omnichannel e-commerce platform. Using top notch technology, customers can sell their […]
Four former Bajaj Auto veterans form start up to finance used two wheelers
MUMBAI: The used-car industry, or its financing, isn’t foreign to a shortage economy. But for buyers of pre-owned motorcycles and scooters, India has never had an organized funding system – a gap in the market that four former Bajaj Auto executives are keen to fill. Led by the erstwhile president of Bajaj Auto’s motorcycle business […]
CreditMantri raises ₹51.4 crore in Series B
CreditMantri, which helps those seeking loans connect with lenders through its online platform, has raised ₹51.4 crore ($7.6 million) in a Series B round led by Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, managed by Quona Capital, along with Newid Capital. Existing investors Elevar Equity, IDG Ventures and Accion Venture Lab participated in this round. It will use […]
Agri finance firm Samunnati raises ₹30 crore from Accel, others
Chennai-based NBFC Samunnati Financial Intermediation and Services Pvt Ltd, which is solely focused on financing agriculture, has raised $4.5 million (Rs. 30 crore) funding from Accel and other existing investors. Existing investors Elevar Equity and existing institutional shareholder Edelweiss Caps and serial entrepreneur R. Ramaraj also participated in the funding. Elevar had earlier invested $1.8 […]
India’s hostels for the upwardly mobile
If several hundred million Indians do migrate from the countryside to cities between now and 2050, as the UN expects, it will be a fiendishly busy few decades for Vivek Aher, who runs a low-cost hostel, one of five, on the outskirts of Pune, a well-off city three hours’ drive from Mumbai. A fair few […]
Ujjivan microfinance turns into small finance bank
Leading microfinance firm Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd on Monday announced commencing its operations as a Small Finance Bank here. Bangladeshi Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, who was the chief guest on the occasion, unveiled five pilot branches of the bank across the city to provide full service offerings. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued license […]
Farm Finance: How this Budget can give a push to rural credit, post-demonetisation
Just across the road from the sprawling, leafy campus of IIT-Madras lies the main office of Samunnati Financial Intermediation and Services on the first floor of a non-descript glass-fronted building. Led by Anil Kumar, an ex-banker with nearly 25 years of hands-on retail lending experience, it’s one of a handful of new-generation non-banking finance companies […]
Farm to Fork
Three months ago, Rajesh Kumar, a grocery shop owner in South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, added a new line of business – perishables like fruits and vegetables. All he has done is reserve some space to display the fresh produce he gets from a city-based start-up, Sabziwala. to his doorstep. Whatever is unsold is taken back […]
Indifi Technologies Raises $10 Million in Series B Investment Round
Indifi Technologies, an enabler of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) financing in India, announced today it has raised $10 million in a Series B investment round led by philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network, established by the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar. Existing investors Accel Partners and Elevar Equity also participated in the round. Indifi […]
Vistaar Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. has appointed former SEBI Chief, Mr C.B. Bhave as Chairman & Director
Vistaar Financial Services Private Limited, a leading NBFC, focused on lending to small businesses primarily in rural and semi-urban areas, announced the appointment of Mr. C.B. Bhave as the Non-Executive Chairman and Independent Director of the Company with effect from November 17, 2016. Mr Bhave served as the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of […]
Ujjivan gets final RBI nod for small finance bank
KOLKATA: Ujjivan Financial Services said that it has received the final licence from Reserve Bank of India to start small finance bank. Ujjivan Managing Director Samit Ghosh said it is expected to begin the journey in the first quarter of 2017. Ujjivan belongs to the top three league of India’s microfinance sector. “This approval from […]
Afluenta comienza a ofrecer financiamiento colectivo en México
Afluenta, a financing company among people in Latin America, announces the beginning of its operations in Mexico. Since October 12, Mexicans can now invest and apply for a credit in a safe and simple way, without requiring a bank as an intermediary. A year after its launch in Peru, Afluenta continues its expansion in the […]
Skilling Health Care Managers
The Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) in Jaipur, now a university, may not be as popular as Indian Institute of Mangement-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) or IIM Calcutta (IIM-C), but it definitely beats the well-renowned B-Schools when it comes to talent placement in the healthcare industry. Interestingly, several premium B-Schools in South East Asia actually struggle to […]
Elevar Equity invests in Mexican SME lender credijusto
Elevar Equity, a human centered venture capital firm, announced its investment in Credijusto, a financial technology startup providing convenient, transparent and affordable financing to the underserved small and medium enterprise (SME) market in Mexico. Elevar Equity III LP invested in a convertible note, the proceeds of which will be used to build out and scale […]
Indifi Technologies, Suvidhaa Infoserve to empower retailers
Indifi Technologies, an enabler for SME funding in India, has partnered with Suvidhaa Infoserve, a service commerce platform, in a bid to assist retailers to get easy and seamless access to their working capital requirements.The first phase of this partnership will greatly benefit Suvidhaa’s 90,000+ channel partner base to manage operations better and enhance efficiency. […]
Shubham Housing Finance leads Digitization in Home Loans with Nucleus Software’s FinnOne Neo
Nucleus Software, the leading provider of lending and transaction banking solutions to the global financial services industry, has announced that Shubham Housing Development Finance Company Ltd (SHDFC) has successfully completed the implementation of FinnOne Neo, the award winning loan life cycle management solution. Shubham is one of the first dedicated housing finance companies in India […]
Bank of Baroda, CreditMantri to launch first-of-kind lending program
Bank of Baroda has announced today that they are working with CreditMantri to launch a first of a kind credit product, wherein data from traditional and alternate data sources is used to help evaluate an applicant’s credit worthiness and make a credit risk decision. The business loan product has the ability to score the applicant […]
Indifi Technologies : Gets You a Loan For Your Business Within Minutes
There are 29.8 million enterprises in SME space. There is a total finance requirement of INR 32.5 trillion ($650 billion) in the MSME sector, which comprises of INR 26 trillion ($ 520 Billion) of debt demand and INR 6.5 trillion ($130 Billion) of equity demand. Indifi is a Gurgaon based platform for enabling debt-financing for […]
Indifi Expands loan portfolio through partnership with Edelweiss for SME Financing
With this association, Edelweiss Retail Finance will now extend lending to small businesses across multiple segments that Indifi operates across travel, transportation, e-commerce and hotels. MUMBAI: Indifi Technologies, an enabler for SME funding in India, has successfully expanded its partnership with Edelweiss Retail Finance, as a lender on its online lending platform. With this association, […]
CreditMantri ties up with Equifax for instant credit score
Chennai based credit facilitator CreditMantri on Thursday announced the launch of a new service that enables users to access their credit score and history in real-time, using tradeline credit data from global data and insights company Equifax . CreditMantri helps user’s build their credit profile, understand where they stand and unlock their credit potential. On […]
Ujjivan Fin Services IPO stages stellar show, subscribed 40.57x
NEW DEHI: The initial public offering (IPO) of Ujjivan Financial Services drew huge response, with the public issue receiving bids for 120.35 crore shares, which was 40.57 times the total issue size of 2.96 crore shares. On NSE, the quota for retail individual investors (RIIs) was subscribed 1.54 of the quota limit. The non-institutional investors […]
Poor credit score stopped your loan from going through? CreditMantri can help you set it right
If you grew up in a typical middle-class Indian home, then the notion of taking credit or a loan of any kind would have been severely frowned upon. It would be much later in life when you are looking for a loan to buy your dream house do you realise how this mindset could be […]
Varthana bags Rs 93 crore in Series B funding
BENGALURU: Varthana, a nonbanking finance company ( NBFC) that provides debt financing and solutions to private schools that enrol students from lowincome families, has secured Rs 93 crore ($14 million) in Series-B funds from a clutch of investors led by Kaizen Private Equity and Zephyr Peacock India. Steve Hardgrave CEO of Varthana said, existing investors […]
Indifi: giving lenders the comfort of smaller loans
Fintech enablers can help financial institutions find better customers Not all new businesses, even in India’s hot start-up age, are looking to be the next unicorn. Some aren’t looking for high risk large equity funding every few months or years; for them, large ticket funding announcements won’t be the regular fare. It’s why debt financing […]
Elevar Equity: Growing demand, growing companies and growing opportunities for impact at scale (podcast)
Here’s one way to tell the difference between an impact business model and the still-dominant version. Do they target low-income consumers, as indicated by pricing and cost assumptions? The impact businesses will be built to maximize affordability. High-quality, affordable products and services that meet the real needs of emerging middle-class consumers around the world means […]
IDB and Afluent sign agreement to impulse green loans
Afluenta, la primera y única red de Financiamiento Colaborativo de América Latina, anunció hoy la firma del convenio de cooperación técnica con el Fondo Multilateral de Inversiones (FOMIN) miembro del Grupo BID, para desarrollar un canal alternativo de financiamiento de iniciativas verdes, por intermedio de su plataforma de financiamiento colectivo (crowdlending). Durante los 24 meses […]
Elevar Equity exits Caja Rural Los Andes
Elevar Equity, a human centered venture capital firm, announced that it had fully divested its position in Peruvian finance company Caja Rural de Ahorro y Crédito los Andes S.A. through the sale of its stake to Creation Investments Capital Management, a private equity firm focused on financial services in emerging markets. Caja Rural Los Andes […]