The firm has recently launched Ankur GRO – an initiative to formalize their Capital Plus approach of partnering with company founders, providing technical assistance as well as support in training, strategic planning, executive mentoring, finance, marketing, talent acquisition, and operations. Once capital is committed, Ankur Capital doesn’t stop there. As with Fund I, we are happy to accelerate this trend with Fund II.” “We are witnessing a distinct set of companies that are using India’s large and diverse markets to test products before launching abroad. “India is in a unique position to build companies for the next billion users (NBU) that are also globally relevant,” said Ritu Verma, co-founder and managing partner, Ankur Capital. Its maiden fund closed at Rs 50 cr (US$7.5 million) and invested in 14 startups that successfully reflect Ankur’s differentiated thesis including SaaS solution developer CropIn String Bio, a producer of alternative protein from methane and BigHaat, an e-commerce supply chain platform. “A powerful example of catalytic capital, Ankur’s focus on transformative technology has the potential to improve economic opportunity for low-income individuals across India.”įounded in 2014 by Ritu Verma, an alum of Penn/INSEAD, and Rema Subramanian, the former COO of Zee e-learning, Ankur Capital historically makes pre-Series A and Series A investments across the agtech, healthtech, fintech, edtech, local language tech, and deeptech solutions.Īligning and acknowledging the paradigm shift in how markets are being accessed, Ankur Capital’s core strategy is to invest in entrepreneurs solving real-word problems through innovative tech business models aiming to achieve large-scale impact, and targeting the next billion users. “We are excited to support Ankur Capital as one of a select group of major investments that advance the goals of the global Catalytic Capital Consortium initiative,” said Debra Schwartz, managing director, Impact Investments at the MacArthur Foundation. These new partners join Fund II’s existing investors CDC Group, Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). MacArthur Foundation, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), and National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD). Ankur announced a first close on Fund II in January 2020 at 240 crore (US$36 million).Īs a pioneer in India’s agtech investment space, Ankur Capital’s investment thesis of backing innovative technologies in emerging markets and capitalizing upon the transformative opportunities that arise through greater digital access has attracted new investors through this round, including the John D. Mumbai-based early stage impact investor Ankur Capital announced a close on an intermediate round of funding for their Fund II at 330 crore (US$49.6 million). Read our full conversation with Debra Schwartz here.By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media We can help keep transactions oriented to that north star of impact. And we have “impact fidelity” in our DNA. We can absorb the extra transaction costs of doing something creative or bespoke. Because we own our assets, we can take risks that other institutions might not. But foundations have a unique potential to advance the market. We are not now, nor will we ever be, the majority of the capital in the impact investing arena. The third big opportunity I see is growing engagement among foundations. These are nascent, but we are seeing more and more of them every day. It’s also encouraging to see alternative structures springing up, like holding companies that are addressing the critical need for patient capital. The second big opportunity is for innovation in the intermediation space, with new marketplace platforms providing those important investor on-ramps that I mentioned earlier. Rising interest in impact investing is a big opportunity, so long as we can harness it in a way that makes the market inclusive and allows for investing that is unconventional and not purely commercial. What are the three biggest opportunities in impact? The GCP recently published their Why GCP conversation with Debra Schwartz, the managing director of impact investments at The MacArthur Foundation. In the months leading up to the launch event we interviewed key pioneers and leaders in the impact space about the state of the field. Read a recap of the GCP’s June launch event here. The Good Capital Project ’s inaugural convening took place in June 2017 in New York City.
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