The Aavishkaar Group, one of the largest impact platform across Asia and Africa, has raised Rs 260 crore from FMO, the Netherlands’ entrepreneurial development bank.

The group plans to utilise the investment to strengthen its ownership in its debt platforms and expand its business in Africa and South-East Asia.

Commenting on the investment, Peter van Mierlo, the chief executive officer of FMO said, “With this investment into the group, we hope to help the Aavishkaar Group reduce the vulnerability of India’s, South East Asia’s and Africa’s low-income population. We have seen their enterprise-based development approach work as limited partners in the Aavishkaar capital side and now along with Triodos, Shell Foundation and TIAA/Nuveen we will be part of the journey of the entire Group.”

On the capital raising, Vineet Rai, founder and chairman, Aavishkaar Group said, “As the group strive to unleash the entrepreneurial energy of young minds towards core challenges that the world desires to address; investment participation by FMO and the strategic partnership we intend to build with them would help strengthen our ability to deliver impact sustainably.”

Will use proceeds to further push into Africa and Southeast Asia; Targets AUM of $7 billion by 2025-26

Aavishkaar Group, one of the world’s largest impact investors, has raised $37 million (about Rs 262 crore) in fresh financing from Dutch development finance institution FMO, as the Mumbai-based social capital investor looks to push further into Africa and Southeast Asia.

“We are in the third phase of our consolidation, where we have invited FMO to join as a shareholder in the group, right at the top. This will be a minority stake – about 10%,” Vineet Rai, chief executive of Aavishkaar Group, told ET.

Aavishkaar, which currently manages assets of about $1 billion, received $32 million from Nuveen, the investment management arm of diversified financial services giant Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, in December last year. ET was the first to report this development.

In 2017, Triodos Investment Management, the investment arm of European lender Triodos Bank, and Shell Foundation, chipped in $25 million into the company.

According to Rai, a substantial portion of proceeds from the new round will be used to start building the groundwork to expand its operations in Africa and Southeast Asia, with an added focus on bringing its debt vehicles to the two regions.

“FMO has a very deep network in both regions, and we expect them to play a very clear strategic role in the impact investing space,” Rai said. “We are targeting the next 7-8 years to grow our assets under management from $1 billion today, to $7 billion, or Rs 50,000 crore.”

Founded in 2001, Aavishkaar Group comprises five entities — microfinance institution Arohan; Aavishkaar Capital, which runs a slew of venture capital funds; Intellecap, which undertakes consulting, research, investment banking and social entrepreneurship; fin-tech-focused lender Tribe3, and SME-focused debt finance provider IntelleGrow.

Under its equity investment arm, Aavishkaar Capital, the Group has launched six funds, across India, Africa and Southeast Asia, with an estimated $450 million in assets under management. It is currently in the process of raising its first Africa-focused fund, and its second Southeast Asia fund, both of which have a target corpus of at least $150 million.

“With this investment into the group, we hope to help the Aavishkaar Group reduce the vulnerability of India’s, Southeast Asia’s and Africa’s low-income population… We will work with Aavishkaar to help them build their own institution so that they can focus on what they do well: building companies, backing entrepreneurs and unlocking innovative ideas,” FMO said in a statement.

India continues to be Aavishkaar’s core market, with Asia’s third-largest economy having about 65% of its total AUM. Aavishkaar has undertaken about 68 investments, and recorded 30 exits till date.

Mumbai, 27 August 2019: Innovative startups from India with disruptive sustainability solutions applicable to the fashion supply chain will now have the opportunity to be part of a regional innovation program launched by Fashion for Good, in partnership with Arvind Ltd. and Intellecap.

This year – the fashion industry saw a new perspective on what sustainable fashion means at Lakmé Fashion Week. Delegates at Sustainable Fashion Day – Lakmé Fashion Week witnessed India’s first investor showcase for circular & sustainable fashion enterprises on Sustainable Fashion Day, 22nd of August 2019.

The Circular Changemaker’s Showcase was organized by Intellecap’s Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF), an industry-led platform launched in partnership with Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail and The DOEN Foundation to drive a circular apparel & textile economy in India, along with the Circular Design Challenge of IMG Reliance and its partners R Elan and UN Environment.

The program – Circular Changemakers – was launched in June 2019, and received over 70 applications from across 21 cities in India. After going through a review by a selection committee and a three-day investment readiness bootcamp, six enterprises pitched their solution to a high level investor panel, comprising of investment funds and business enablers such as Aavishkaar, Asha Impact, Fashion for Good, UN Environment, and corporates such as Mahindra Retail, and H&M Co:Lab.

The innovators include:
Canva Fiber Labs: An alternative fiber and a material science company that uses a proprietary (provisional patented) technology to convert agriculture waste into textile fibers that are environmentally, socially, and economically superior.

Reverse Resources: An enterprise that maps and traces textile leftovers from fabric and garment production to enable data sharing from source of waste to recyclers and build efficiency of waste management and trading through digitalisation and software as a service.

Greensole: An enterprise focused on recycling discarded shoes to comfortable footwear, and keeping the waste away from landfills. Greensole upcycles and retails footwear to further create a self-sustaining venture and works with large corporates to handle their waste footwear.

Saathi Eco Innovations: Saathi has developed a single platform technology to process different kinds of natural fibers into highly absorbent pulp that has multiple use-cases such as a 100% biodegradable and compostable sanitary pad made from banana fiber.

JSP Enviro: A technology company that has created a revolutionary product which conserves & treats effluents/wastewater while maintaining energy efficiency. Their Microbial Fuel Cell innovation is an effluent treatment technology that can generate electricity from processed effluents and treat the water for reuse.

Speaking about the program, Stefanie Bauer-Vemuri, Director Circular Apparel Innovation Factory said “The enterprises showcased at Lakmé Fashion Week highlight the variety of innovations that are emerging in India in the sustainable fashion space – from fibres to end-of-use and recycling solutions, all with the potential to make a difference in India’s textile and apparel industry. We are excited to see such a positive response in the industry to join this first ever investor showcase, and are committed to organize more such events in the future that bring the ecosystem together on one platform.”

The showcase was part of a larger effort of the Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) and its partners to build the capabilities and the ecosystem needed to transition to a circular textile and apparel industry in India. One of the key ecosystem gaps identified is the limited visibility of innovative solution providers, coupled with limited scaling-support to these enterprises. The Change Makers Program was one response to address critical market barriers and catalyze strategic collaborations, investments, and partnerships among enterprises, corporates, investors, and other industry players.

“We at the Aavishkaar Group pioneered the idea of impact driven sustainable investing in India, Africa, and South East Asia. As we look at the textile sector, and specially the apparel sector from the lens of circular economy and sustainability, we see the need for innovative ideas and startups… to nurture these innovators, we need a flourishing ecosystem in addition to capital. Through Intellecap and CAIF, we hope to contribute to this process and see transformation sweeping through the Indian apparel industry”, said Vineet Rai, Founder, The Aavishkaar Group.

Join India’s first online platform for circular fashion brands, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, investors and enablers: www.circularapparel.co

Technically, MSMEs cannot increase their area of presence due to wide-ranging challenges. But the paradigm is changing with their digital adoption and the rise of e-commerce segment in India.

Indian MSME sector contributes around 45 per cent to the GDP as per MasterCard’s ‘Micro Merchant Market Sizing and Profiling Report.’ This figure is about three times what corporate India contributes. However, this growth engine for the Indian economy needs to be properly oiled for proper functioning, something that is barely the case at present. A recent report by IFC-Intellecap indicates that there is a credit gap of Rs 16.66 lakh crore ($240 billion) in India. The gravity of the situation can only be realized when we consider that the Indian economy is pegged at $2.6 trillion, and government spending is about $400 billion.

The MSME sector, hence, is far from its optimal performance. Still, it seems like the times are changing for the sector and the advent of e-commerce in India needs to be credited for this market development.

At present, there are more than 51 million operational MSME units in India. The sector is spread sporadically throughout the vast expanse of the nation. This alone introduces a number of challenges for the sector. One of the primary challenges faced by the sector, apart from credit availability, is that of connectivity. MSMEs have meagre-to-zero digital integration. This keeps them limited to their area of physical presence. They, moreover, need to arrange and manage their own logistics, even if they are supplying to a region where the incurred costs are relatively higher. These costs could be lowered if they had access to viable channel partnerships, but this is not the case as they fall in the bulging bottom of the business pyramid.

So, technically, MSMEs cannot increase their area of presence due to wide-ranging challenges. But the paradigm is changing with their digital adoption and the rise of e-commerce segment in India — the future of our current retail market. It might be in the form of hyperlocal business, B2C (Business-to-Customer) e-commerce, B2B (Business-to-Business) e-commerce, C2C (Customer-to-Customer) e-commerce, or even a P2P (Peer-to-Peer) business model, eCommerce will be driving every retail transaction in the near future.

Digitized Reach and Payments

The change is already visible on the ground with e-commerce platforms serving as the perfect enabler of the Indian MSME segment. They are helping the MSME segment to reduce its transaction cost, approach larger untapped markets, and avoid intermediaries. Several market vendors still consider the segment as ‘unorganized’ but this leaves massive scope for technological integration to the sector. Hence, it will bring about even better opportunities for the MSME sector, technology integrators, and the market in general.

The use of Information Technology has not only enabled greater consumer participation but has also helped in mass communication along with reduced costs. For instance, a small workshop that manufactures cricket accessories in Meerut can now easily supply its bats, wickets, and other goods to cricket academies in Bangalore. It’s easy to have complete visibility of the end-to-end fulfilment process. The transportation is managed by logistics aggregators who provide complete delivery status via messages and the online platform.

On the other hand, the cash woes of the MSME units are eliminated through channel partnerships with digital lending platforms. Since cash transactions govern a majority of transactions in India (and will continue to do so in the near future), some market players are even providing features such as Early COD that ensures quick remittance for an MSME irrespective of the complications involved in the process. This ultimately minimizes the locked-in capital of MSMEs and enables them to operate with superior efficiency.

Today, the integration of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is completely changing the relationship between the organizations, consumers, and those who act as mediators between the organizations and the consumers. With ever-increasing technological adoption in the MSME sector, India is gradually traversing towards its ultramodern future. Perhaps, greasing the ‘growth engine’ and fueling it for the long haul.

Intellecap’s content partnership with Next Billion, one of the largest online publications from the ecosystem, will enable a host of authors from India and Africa to share their ideas, insights and expertise through this yearlong special series which began in 2018.

Ankur Seth, Engagement Manager and Neha Kumar, Senior Associate, Intellecap India, as part of our yearlong content partnership with Next Billion contribute the fifth story in the series.

As a quick recap the first story in this Next Billion Series was on ‘India’s Impact Capital Vacuum’ which was authored by Intellecap’s Gagandeep Bakshi and Sameer Gaud, and the second story was ‘The Definition of Insanity: Why Repeating the Same Approach to Enterprise Support is Failing Africa’s SMEs’ which was authored by Intellecap Africa’s Mercy Mangeni and Joshua Murima. The third article by Rajat Chabba, VP Intellecap India and Sheena Raikundalia, Lead, Intellecap Africa was around ‘Inexpensive Impact: The Case for Frugal Innovations’. The fourth article by Santosh Singh, Associate Partner and Ankit Gupta, Manager, Intellecap India was titled  ‘Building an Ecosystem to Save an Ecosystem: How Facilitating Climate Finance for MSME’s can fight Global Climate Change’

Titled ‘Bringing Digital Financial Inclusion to Women: The Impact of an Integrated Ecosystem Approach’ the fifth article talks about how despite global initiatives aimed at catalyzing formal banking and increasing the usage of digital channels, almost 1 billion women still remain excluded from the global financial economy.

Sharing data more closer to home, the authors opine how close to 14% of total establishments in India are managed by women, and that these businesses provide employment to roughly 13.5 million people. But while the Indian economy has grown at an accelerated pace in the past decade, the workforce participation of women has seen a decline from 35% in 2005 to 26% in 2018.  The authors state further that this clearly indicates that either the growth in the economic empowerment of women has not been in sync with the economic growth of the country, or women are not included in the formal economy, despite performing many economic activities, and how global statistics reveal a similar issue, with 56% of the unbanked being women and just 41% of women being part of the work force.

The authors highlight that while there have been a slew of global initiatives introduced to integrate women into the formal economy, the fact is that the comprehensive financial inclusion of women is still a distant dream. They state the compelling example that just having a bank account is not sufficient to consider women financially included, since In India, almost half of all accounts are dormant and don’t provide the real benefits that digital financial services (DFS) can bring, such as access to credit, reductions in cash risk due to the use of mobile money transfers and savings, increases in disposable income, and better personal financial management.

The authors go on to talk about the barriers to women’s financial inclusion , shedding light on the fact that in India this is more so, since traditionally, women in rural communities are highly reliant on men to make financial decisions for the household. They also state that women in India are also held back by the psychological barriers they face while accessing DFS. These barriers include reluctance to own a mobile phone, self-doubt while using a smartphone, hesitation in attending training events due to the unequal gender ratio at the training centers, and a broader fear of technology. These obstacles are amplified by the absence of a local support system, in the form of female change agents or women support groups led by more progressive members of the community.

The foundation for financial inclusion, they highlight, stands on three pillars – access, trust and comfort. But this foundation cannot be built through a single government policy or a development agency in isolation. Instead, it will entail a range of partnerships across technology, banking, the rural-focused private sector and government departments. This is where rural value chains can create an integrated digital financial ecosystem for women. Unless women reliably find value in using their bank accounts, no initiative can spur their financial inclusion.

The authors then go on to talk about a model for digitizing financial access for women, and speak about how Intellecap has digitized over 800 women across 30 villages in India by building an integrated digital financial ecosystem for them, following the approach outlined above.

Getting into the details, the authors share details of how this was accomplished by implementing integrated rural digital financial ecosystem pilots for women-dominant agriculture value chains, including dairy, poultry and food processing, across selected geographies in India. The pilots have demonstrated success on several primary metrics such as income, savings and productive time for smallholder women farmers. As secondary gains, these women have built higher awareness of digital channels of transactions, and gained more financial independence through better control over their income and expenses.

Speaking also about the dairy value chain digitization pilot, they present data of how 36% of financially excluded women in the pilot villages were included in the formal economy, and 80% of the participating women dairy farmers also reported an increase in savings. Through the pilot for the food and beverages value chain, 75% of self-help groups for women entrepreneurs improved sales in their businesses through market linkages using digital platforms.

The authors end with how this unique value propositions of the pilot partners – which ranged from rural value chain aggregators to payment/commercial banks and lending fintechs – have ensured that these pilots continue to scale. The integrated ecosystem model endeavors to first establish the roots of digital financial services deployments, and then branch out in phases. It therefore presents the most sustainable way to replicate digitization across varied value chains, both formal and informal, enabling comprehensive inclusion for women across geographies.

MoooFarm’s face-recognition solution may end insurance fraud, stray menace

One cow does not look very different from another. This opens up opportunities for insurance fraud in rural areas, and leads to cattle menace in cities, with no way of readily identifying the true owners of the animals that are left to roam free.

But this is set to change, with use of facial-recognition technology for cattle.

Agri-tech start-up MoooFarm has launched a solution for facial recognition of cattle that has won a $30,000 prize from a World Bank group entity in the Data Analytics category.

The technology is expected to reduce, if not end, frauds in cattle insurance and identify the true owners of stray cattle.

According to a study by the Institute for Financial Research and Management, up to 80 per cent of cattle insurance claims are fraudulent.

While currently ear-tags are used to connect the cattle with the owner, MoooFarm uses the facial recognition technology.

High accuracy

“Using this technology, MoooFarm has tested the facial-recognition model with 95.7 per cent accuracy. We are aiming at achieving 100 per cent accuracy in six months. With such accuracy levels, our software will eliminate fraud,” Param Preet Singh, MoooFarm’s co-founder, told BusinessLine.

Through its app, MoooFarm collects geography-specific data for each farm and cattlehead with details of breed, yield, critical events such as successful calving and heat symptoms, as also concurrence of a disease and antibiotics given. By leveraging data analytics, it identifies unique patterns and assists in predicting each cattlehead’s mortality rate.

This record is compared with other cattleheads of the same breed to allow for accurate valuation of its market price, giving a true basis for calculating the sum assured and premium, which will encourage farmers to insure their cattle.

Low insurance rates

According to the latest census, India has over 30 crore milch cattle. “But,” Singh says, “the number of cattle insured in the country is less than 9 per cent. The cost of cattle insurance is 4 per cent of the cattle value. Of this cost, the government foots 50 per cent. However, in terms of volume, cattle insurance accounts for a meagre 1 per cent of insurance companies’ incomes. That doesn’t justify the high cost of entering the rural livestock market.

“However, using our technology and app, if cattle insurance spreads in the country, benefiting both the farmer and the insurance companies, the latter may take a re-look at this 4 per cent figure, going forward.”

MoooFarm, which provides last-mile connectivity solutions to small dairy farmers, said that in the coming weeks, this technology will reach far-flung small-holder farmers via its mobile app and network of village-level entrepreneurs.

Innovation contest

The World Bank group’s Global Index Insurance Facility had hosted the Agriculture Insuretech Innovation Challenge in association with Sankalp Forum, an initiative of Intellecap Advisory Services. A total of 106 applications from 16 countries were received; 21 finalists presented their innovative business propositions.

On the use of the prize money, Singh said: “MoooFarm plans to use it to develop more such technologies to disrupt the dairy industry and bring about a white tech revolution in India.”

World Bank Group’s flagship program, Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), facilitates access to finance and insurance solutions for smallholder farmers.
Supports and enables farmers to access finance and build resilience against future farm risks

MUMBAI, July 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — World Bank Group, through the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) and Sankalp Forum by Intellecap, announced the winners of Agriculture Insuretech Innovation Challenge at the Agri Insuretech Forum that took place at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, today.

The event witnessed participation from leading insurance companies, government officials from Ministry of Agriculture, impact investors, and innovators incubators from the agriculture, technology, and insurance sectors. The platform held key panel discussions on bringing together the agri-insuretech ecosystem stakeholders such as innovators, investors, government, academia, technology and financial services companies to deliberate on the role that technology innovations can play in driving the design, distribution and adoption of agricultural insurance solutions. Key government dignitaries Suhas Divase, Commissioner of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra and Dr. Ashish Kumar Bhutani, CEO, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Government of India were also part of the panel discussions.

Speaking about the strategic partnership, Vikas Bali, CEO, Intellecap Advisory Services, said, “The partnership between GIIF and Intellecap comes at a very important time. Solving agri and smallholder farmer incomes is key to making a more equitable and sustainable ecosystem. Through this partnership, we have brought together innovators from 21 countries who will drive this change. This summit is just a start of a long eventful journey.”

Of the world’s 500 million smallholder farmers, around 400 million are in Asia. The region is home to some of the world’s most climate-exposed territories and has been disproportionately hit by the effects of climate change, with 45 percent of the world’s natural disasters occurring here in the past three decades. Smallholders farmers, in particular, are suffering from crop failures that can threaten their economic livelihood. The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), is supporting farmers and micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries to gain better access to finance and manage financial losses arising from frequent and severe weather events.

Fatou Assah, GIIF Program Manager, World Bank Group, said, “The World Bank Group is committed to promoting agriculture insurance for smallholder farmers, so they can protect themselves against more frequent and severe climate events. The adoption of Insuretech solutions helps reach the larger number of low-income rural populations with financial products that are needed, cost-effective, transparent, and simple. I am delighted that the innovators participating in this challenge are contributing to the betterment of the rural finance ecosystem with scalable technology solutions that can be replicated in other geographies.”

The event was closed with the announcement of the Agri Insuretech Challenge winners. The Awards recognized some of South and Southeast Asia’s most promising entrepreneurs who are using technology to address challenges in providing agricultural insurance to farmers. The awards were given under three categories of an insurance product’s lifecycle — Data & Analytics, Sales and Distribution, and Premiums & Claims. The 9 winners, selected from 24 challenge finalists and 105 applicants, won cash awards valued at $270,000. They will now collaborate with WBG’s Global Index Insurance Facility to develop their solutions further to improve agricultural insurance products and their uptake, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. The nine winners are:

Data & Analytics:
Stellaps
MoooFarm
Niruthi

Sales & Distribution:
ICT 4 Agri
Hara
HF Mlog

Premiums & Claims:
Gramcover
Coastal
Dhwani RIS

Keynote speaker, Vineet Rai, CEO of leading impact investment group, Aavishkaar Capital said, “There is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs if they look at different verticals in the agriculture value chain and create specialization. Capital should not be an issue as there is serious interest in agri tech from the investor community.”

World Bank Group’s flagship program, Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), facilitates access to finance and insurance solutions for smallholder farmers.

Supports and enables farmers to access finance and build resilience against future farm risks
MUMBAI, July 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — World Bank Group, through the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) and Sankalp Forum by Intellecap, announced the winners of Agriculture Insuretech Innovation Challenge at the Agri Insuretech Forum that took place at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, today.

The event witnessed participation from leading insurance companies, government officials from Ministry of Agriculture, impact investors, and innovators incubators from the agriculture, technology, and insurance sectors. The platform held key panel discussions on bringing together the agri-insuretech ecosystem stakeholders such as innovators, investors, government, academia, technology and financial services companies to deliberate on the role that technology innovations can play in driving the design, distribution and adoption of agricultural insurance solutions. Key government dignitaries Suhas Divase, Commissioner of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra and Dr. Ashish Kumar Bhutani, CEO, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Government of India were also part of the panel discussions.

Speaking about the strategic partnership, Vikas Bali, CEO, Intellecap Advisory Services, said, “The partnership between GIIF and Intellecap comes at a very important time. Solving agri and smallholder farmer incomes is key to making a more equitable and sustainable ecosystem. Through this partnership, we have brought together innovators from 21 countries who will drive this change. This summit is just a start of a long eventful journey.”

Of the world’s 500 million smallholder farmers, around 400 million are in Asia. The region is home to some of the world’s most climate-exposed territories and has been disproportionately hit by the effects of climate change, with 45 percent of the world’s natural disasters occurring here in the past three decades. Smallholders farmers, in particular, are suffering from crop failures that can threaten their economic livelihood. The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), is supporting farmers and micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries to gain better access to finance and manage financial losses arising from frequent and severe weather events.

Fatou Assah, GIIF Program Manager, World Bank Group, said, “The World Bank Group is committed to promoting agriculture insurance for smallholder farmers, so they can protect themselves against more frequent and severe climate events. The adoption of Insuretech solutions helps reach the larger number of low-income rural populations with financial products that are needed, cost-effective, transparent, and simple. I am delighted that the innovators participating in this challenge are contributing to the betterment of the rural finance ecosystem with scalable technology solutions that can be replicated in other geographies.”

The event was closed with the announcement of the Agri Insuretech Challenge winners. The Awards recognized some of South and Southeast Asia’s most promising entrepreneurs who are using technology to address challenges in providing agricultural insurance to farmers. The awards were given under three categories of an insurance product’s lifecycle — Data & Analytics, Sales and Distribution, and Premiums & Claims. The 9 winners, selected from 24 challenge finalists and 105 applicants, won cash awards valued at $270,000. They will now collaborate with WBG’s Global Index Insurance Facility to develop their solutions further to improve agricultural insurance products and their uptake, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. The nine winners are:

Data & Analytics:
– Stellaps
– MoooFarm
– Niruthi

Sales & Distribution:
– ICT 4 Agri
– Hara
– HF Mlog

Premiums & Claims:
– Gramcover
– Coastal
– Dhwani RIS

Keynote speaker, Vineet Rai, CEO of leading impact investment group, Aavishkaar Capital said, “There is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs if they look at different verticals in the agriculture value chain and create specialization. Capital should not be an issue as there is serious interest in agri tech from the investor community.”

(Eds: Disclaimer: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PR Newswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.)
World Bank Group’s flagship program, Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), facilitates access to finance and insurance solutions for smallholder farmers.
Supports and enables farmers to access finance and build resilience against future farm risks
MUMBAI, July 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — World Bank Group, through the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) and Sankalp Forum by Intellecap, announced the winners of Agriculture Insuretech Innovation Challenge at the Agri Insuretech Forum that took place at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, today.

The event witnessed participation from leading insurance companies, government officials from Ministry of Agriculture, impact investors, and innovators incubators from the agriculture, technology, and insurance sectors. The platform held key panel discussions on bringing together the agri-insuretech ecosystem stakeholders such as innovators, investors, government, academia, technology and financial services companies to deliberate on the role that technology innovations can play in driving the design, distribution and adoption of agricultural insurance solutions. Key government dignitaries Suhas Divase, Commissioner of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra and Dr. Ashish Kumar Bhutani, CEO, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Government of India were also part of the panel discussions.

Speaking about the strategic partnership, Vikas Bali, CEO, Intellecap Advisory Services, said, “The partnership between GIIF and Intellecap comes at a very important time. Solving agri and smallholder farmer incomes is key to making a more equitable and sustainable ecosystem. Through this partnership, we have brought together innovators from 21 countries who will drive this change. This summit is just a start of a long eventful journey.”

Of the world’s 500 million smallholder farmers, around 400 million are in Asia. The region is home to some of the world’s most climate-exposed territories and has been disproportionately hit by the effects of climate change, with 45 percent of the world’s natural disasters occurring here in the past three decades. Smallholders farmers, in particular, are suffering from crop failures that can threaten their economic livelihood. The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), is supporting farmers and micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries to gain better access to finance and manage financial losses arising from frequent and severe weather events.

Fatou Assah, GIIF Program Manager, World Bank Group, said, “The World Bank Group is committed to promoting agriculture insurance for smallholder farmers, so they can protect themselves against more frequent and severe climate events. The adoption of Insuretech solutions helps reach the larger number of low-income rural populations with financial products that are needed, cost-effective, transparent, and simple. I am delighted that the innovators participating in this challenge are contributing to the betterment of the rural finance ecosystem with scalable technology solutions that can be replicated in other geographies.”

The event was closed with the announcement of the Agri Insuretech Challenge winners. The Awards recognized some of South and Southeast Asia’s most promising entrepreneurs who are using technology to address challenges in providing agricultural insurance to farmers. The awards were given under three categories of an insurance product’s lifecycle — Data & Analytics, Sales and Distribution, and Premiums & Claims. The 9 winners, selected from 24 challenge finalists and 105 applicants, won cash awards valued at $270,000. They will now collaborate with WBG’s Global Index Insurance Facility to develop their solutions further to improve agricultural insurance products and their uptake, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. The nine winners are:

Data & Analytics:
– Stellaps
– MoooFarm
– Niruthi

Sales & Distribution:
– ICT 4 Agri
– Hara
– HF Mlog

Premiums & Claims:
– Gramcover
– Coastal
– Dhwani RIS

Keynote speaker, Vineet Rai, CEO of leading impact investment group, Aavishkaar Capital said, “There is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs if they look at different verticals in the agriculture value chain and create specialization. Capital should not be an issue as there is serious interest in agri tech from the investor community.”

Innovative startups from India with disruptive sustainability solutions applicable to the fashion supply chain will now have the opportunity to be part of a Asia innovation programme launched by Fashion for Good, supported by Intellecap.

India is not only a global leader in manufacturing and one of the largest consumer markets for fashion, it is also increasingly a hotspot for innovators that tap into the growing opportunities to create value and impact both socially and environmentally from a transition towards a circular economy. With a rich heritage in textile manufacturing and production, Fashion for Good, Intellecap’s Circular Apparel Innovation factory (CAIF) and its Indian corporate partners are seeking to spark and scale promising innovations from this region that have the potential to disrupt the current fashion supply chain worldwide. Of particular interest will be the unique perspective of home-grown innovators focusing in key areas including raw materials, dyeing and finishing, manufacturing, retail, end-of-use and transparency and traceability.

We are pleased to see the Fashion for Good innovation platform expanding to Asia; together we will continue to work on promoting and growing the sustainable technologies originating from the FFG platform. We are looking forward to work with these technologies to fuel next set of growth in manufacturing for us with the aim of growing with drastically less environmental impact,” said Punit Lalbhai, Board of Directors; Arvind Limited.

“Our team at Intellecap is very excited to work with Fashion for Good to scale up sustainable fashion innovations in India. Our organizations share a similar vision of putting entrepreneurship in the center of change, and by joining forces, we believe we can build a powerful ecosystem to nurture and grow high impact innovations that are needed to bring India’s fashion industry on a more sustainable growth path,” said Stefanie Bauer, CAIF Intellecap.

Fashion for Good is working on scaling innovations in the region, by catalysing collaborative pilots, which address areas such as making organic cotton traceable and solutions for the treatment of waste water from the apparel manufacturing process.

Katrin Ley, Managing Director of Fashion for Good, explains: “Working closely with these local partners enables us to promote the transition of the fashion industry towards more sustainable, circular practices as well as the betterment of social and environmental issues.”

Leading up to the programme launch, Intellecap and Fashion for Good would host a series of events across India to engage the Indian sustainable textile ecosystem. A first joint event was hosted on 25th of June in Bangalore, followed by an event in the context of this year’s Lakme Fashion Week on 23rd of August, and culminating in a investor showcase at this year’s Sankalp Forum 2019 in November 2019 in Mumbai.