Jan 25 2017

The Aavishkaar-Intellecap Gro-up, an impact investing firm, has raised an equity round of $25 million led by Triodos Investment Management, the investment arm of European lender Triodos Bank and Shell Foundation, an independent charity established by the Shell Group.

Triodos has invested $15 million while Shell has contributed $10 million of the total capital raised. The investment will be infused in the parent company to enable the group to consolidate and expand its bouquet of ecosystem building initiatives/businesses across the globe.

Founded in 2002, the Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group has Assets under Management of over $400 million with over 2,500 team members spread across three continents – Asia, Africa and Americas. It has three lines of business under the group – equity investments under Aavishkaar, advisory Services under Intellecap and debt funding vehicles under Arohan – IntelleGrow and IntelleCash.

On the capital raising, Vineet Rai, founder, Aavishkaar–Intellecap Group said, “As the world chases ambitious Social Development Goals, Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group’s contribution as entrepreneurial ecosystem builders would be seminal in unleashing the entrepreneurial energy toward some of the core challenges around Employment, Health, and Energy & Financial Inclusion that the world desires to address.”

Jan 19 2017

Food wars triggered by scarcity and price of food are likely by 2050 unless we change how food is produced, processed, and supplied

Most major wars fought in the last two centuries have been focused on control of precious resources like minerals, oil, and land. This picture has started to shift in the past few years, with armed conflict increasingly focused on control over depleting water resources and by association food. Climate change-linked droughts in Northern Africa and Sahel, and the resulting shortage of food is one of the triggers behind the European refugee crisis. As these populations relocate to other areas, competition for scarce resources intensifies and results in conflict against the “others” – as we have seen in Western Europe. This is by no means an isolated trend, but the beginning of a pattern we can expect to see in India as well. By 2050, the India’s population will reach 1.7 billion people, creating the most populated country in the world. Food demand will increase by 70%, and is already lagging domestic food production.

Growing prosperity coupled with changes in food patterns will mean that much of this demand will be for water intensive food commodities such as meat. Output of animal products has already overtaken cereals, and accounts for one-third of all agricultural output. Eventually we will reach a tipping point when the demand for meat can no longer be met without shifting agricultural land towards cultivation for cattle, or importing meat. Unfortunately, growing prosperity will walk hand-in-hand with growing inequity – leaving those who live on less than $5 a day unable to afford high-protein diets with requisite micronutrients. If agriculture and food production continues its “business as usual trajectory”, low income and vulnerable communities will likely only be able to access carbohydrates as staple foods. We are already seeing the impact of carbohydrate-rich foods on these communities in terms of higher prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. As diets worsen the prevalence of these diseases will continue to increase, resulting in a vicious cycle which wipes out economic prosperity gains because of increased healthcare expenditure, and in-turn curtails spend on healthier food options. Solutions of the past decade such as high quality inputs and farm mechanization will start to prove insufficient in our quest to feed more and more people healthy diets at affordable prices.

Disruption is imminent in the next decade across value chains and commodities; the future is likely to be one of abundance rather than scarcity

So does this mean the future is bleak? We think not. Human history is a story of triumphs of ingenuity in how food is grown, processed, and distributed. From shifting cultivation, to fixed and specialized farming, to the industrial revolution, and finally the green revolution in India – every few generations we see a leap in technologies that pivot eras of scarcity into eras of abundance. The next pivot is coming, and it is unlike anything we have ever seen before. As exponential technologies such as IoT, machine learning, and robotics commercialize and converge; we will see fundamental shifts in terms of where food is grown, what food is grown, who grows it, and what we expect from it.

Dec 13 2016

Aspada Investment Company has made an undisclosed investment in Noida-based Arya Collateral Warehousing Services Private Limited.

Arya provides a range of post-harvest agriculture value chain services to small hold farmers, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), banks, agro processors and corporate end-users in India. These services include aggregation, collateral management, professional warehousing and facilitation of financial and market linkages.

With Aspada’s investment, Arya will extend its reach to small hold farmers and FPOs in primary markets not served by existing companies, and offer warehousing services as well as short term financing through partnerships with banks and NBFCs.

Prasanna Rao, Managing Director, Arya, said, “Aspada has significant experience in investing in India’s supply chain and agricultural logistics sectors. Their investment will allow us to scale significantly in the primary markets where the penetration of warehousing as well as availability of finance for post-harvest storage of commodities is very low.”

Anand Chandra, Executive Director, Arya, said, “Over the next 24 months we will look to go deeper in underserved geographies, look to invest in post-harvest infrastructure and launch innovative financial products to increase the participation of small hold farmers and their institutions in the agricultural value chain.”

Kushal Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer, Aspada, said, “The absence of storage infrastructure and the lack of availability of finance and market linkages in primary markets are among the biggest challenges in Indian agriculture. Arya is a key addition to Aspada’s agriculture portfolio and will play a significant role in reducing wastage, managing the effects of volatile commodity markets on farmer producer organizations, and improving small farmer realizations.”Prasanna Rao, Managing Director, Arya, said,

Nov 14 2016

Nisha Dutt’s story is one of serendipity and hard work. She joined Intellecap as a Senior Manager in Consulting and Research in 2009. Within six years, she became the CEO of the company. As the CEO, she helps guide the global positioning of the business.

Intellecap provides innovative business solutions that help build and scale profitable and sustainable enterprises dedicated to social and environmental change.

Here are some excerpts from my chat with Nisha.

From India to USA and back

With early years spent in government schools in India, Nisha, 39, moved to the US in 1999 to pursue her Industrial Engineering from Oklahoma State University and MBA from Ohio State University. “I come from the armed forces, and my mother was a businesswoman, so the dual values of discipline and business acumen were the lessons I had learnt at home. As the youngest, I grew up with a fair amount of freedom. The empowerment and freedom to choose coupled with a strong sense of discipline is something I treasure and believe it has laid the stepping stones to the many risks I have taken.”

Jul 22 2016

Sri Lanka has a significant low-income population segment whose financial needs are served by an estimated 14,000 financial institutions in the country, which directly or indirectly provide microcredit products. However, a majority of these financial institutions are either financial NGOs, not-for-profits or organizations that follow a local cooperative structure. For-profit formal sector microfinance institutions are few, and the market is dominated by five or six players that serve the majority of the low-income customer segment. There is limited industry research on the country’s microfinance sector, and Intellecap has attempted to bridge this gap by presenting the following market opportunities and growth strategies, based on conversations with leading practitioners, policy makers and capital providers immersed in the Sri Lankan market.

STRATEGIES FOR MARKET GROWTH IN SRI LANKA

Among South Asian countries, Sri Lanka is unique in terms of population distribution by income, with a majority of its households in the low-income and middle-income segments rather than the lowest (or poorest) segment (Figure 1). As per our assessment, the country’s 2.6 million low-income households (which we’ve termed the aspirers) represent the target customer segment for MFIs in Sri Lanka. While market penetration data for the existing microfinance institutions (MFIs) and non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) in Sri Lanka is not readily available, based on Intellecap’s analysis, the total number of customers served by the five largest MFIs/NBFCs is estimated to be around 1.3 million customers. Meanwhile, the Lanka Microfinance Practitioners’ Association estimates the total number of customers served by 24 smaller MFIs in the country to be nearly 0.7 million.

14-Apr-16

Mumbai, Apr 14 (PTI) Investment bank Intellecap Advisory Services has entered debt investment banking.

Under the services, Intellecap would assist its clients with transaction structuring and debt fund raising from banks, financial institutions, private placement of debt, commercial paper and external commercial borrowings, among others, it said in a statement.

Intellecap investment banking Head Gagandeep Bakshi said the move “is a logical extension as it completes our fund raising offering and enhances our existing capabilities”.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and financial inclusion consulting firm, MicroSave, today signed a pact to support Jan Dhan Yojana and to boost digital transactions.

14-Apr-16

Investment bank Intellecap Advisory Services has entered debt investment banking.

Under the services, Intellecap would assist its clients with transaction structuring and debt fund raising from banks, financial institutions, private placement of debt, commercial paper and external commercial borrowings, among others, it said in a statement.

Intellecap investment banking Head Gagandeep Bakshi said the move “is a logical extension as it completes our fund raising offering and enhances our existing capabilities”.

NPCI, MicroSave tie up to boost digital payments * National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and financial inclusion consulting firm, MicroSave, today signed a pact to support Jan Dhan Yojana and to boost digital transactions.

Both the institutions will collaborate to accelerate creation of less-cash economy in the country through RuPay, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System (AEPS) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a press released issued said.

14-Apr-16

Mid-market investment bank Intellecap Advisory Services has started a debt investment banking practice that draws on the firm’s venture capital and private equity fundraising operations, it said on Thursday.

Intellecap will be offering customised solutions and strategies to clients to help them meet their expansion and refinancing requirements and reduce borrowing costs. It will also assist them with transaction structuring and debt fundraising from banks, financial institutions, private placement of debt, commercial paper and external commercial borrowings.

“With our existing clients moving from early to growth stage and to meet their increasing fund requirements, starting the debt investment banking practice is a logical extension as it completes our

fundraising offering and enhances our existing capabilities” said Gagandeep Bakshi, head – investment banking, Intellecap.

Mar 31, 2016

Kenya-focused entrepreneur Moka Lantum, Founder and Managing Director of Microclinics, is preparing for pitch to a large pharmaceutical company. The Nairobi-based healthcare management company provides patient and clinic management systems to peri-urban and rural clinics. The software developed by his company, tracks commodities in clinics and enhances, availability, accessibility, quality and affordability of medicines in low income markets. The network of clinics and pharmacies as well as his “Blue Angels”, a network of trained youth that promote the service, can be an interesting distribution channel for healthcare and pharmaceutical companies and can potentially lead to cost savings of 30-60% for 2.5 mn customers.

Unfortunately not many small and growing businesses have the opportunity to pitch to a large corporate and explore the potential of a partnership like Microclinics. While it is widely accepted today that partnerships between corporates and small and growing businesses can bridge scaling challenges and help to co-create innovative service offerings for low income markets or develop impactful delivery and distribution channels, establishing these partnerships is a challenge. There is an information asymmetry on both sides, as a result of which it can take up to a year to form a meaningful partnership. The information gap is even larger for corporates interested to enter into a new market and looking for partners.

“The platform that we have created can provide a lot of value to corporates. However, it is difficult for us to find an entry into corporates. Establishing a winning partnership can therefore sometimes take up to a year.” – Moka Lantum, Managing Partner, MicroClinic Technologies

The potential for partnerships between corporates and small and growing businesses is huge. While low-income families at the so called “Base of the economic pyramid” have many unmet needs and aspirations, they lack access to affordable and high quality products and services. Excluded from mainstream markets, they find it difficult to access and nutritious foods, affordable healthcare, quality education, clean water or reliable energy. Despite progress in recent years to reach out to those living in underserved markets, there are 3 billion people living on less than US$2.50 per day—nearly half of the global population. Similarly, East Africa with its current population of 280 million people with growth predictions of 182% by 2050 and an annual consumption of US$49million with low income consumers comprising 90% of the total expenditure, make it an interesting market for corporates and start-ups alike.

Mar 16 2016

NDTV Prime has launched ‘The Real Deal’, a television show and 360 degree media property on impact investing and social entrepreneurship. The show will premiere on March 24, 2016 and will be aired every Friday at 9 pm, March 25 onwards.

From waste managers, skills development, financial and meal visionaries to farmers and healthcare managers, the contestants will fight it out in a set of innovative challenges that will test skills required to be a social entrepreneur. These include empathy, resilience, resourcefulness, ethics, partnering, leadership, selling, bartering, and networking.

The Real Deal will find, feature and fund the country’s best social entrepreneurs by bringing them face to face with potential impact investors in a 10-episode reality game format, bringing together two of the hottest and biggest issues, social change and entrepreneurship.

Judging these social entrepreneurs are Amar Singh, CEO Founder Clove Dental; Audrey Selian, Director, Artha Initiative; Jayesh Parekh, Managing Partner at Jungle Ventures; Radha Kapoor, Founder and Director of the Indian School of Design and Innovation; and Kartik Desai, Principal, Asha Impact. The jury will be the impact investors on the show.