Aavishkaar wins UNDP WBA award

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Channeling India’s Entrepreneurial Energy for Economic Development

The Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund (“Aavishkaar”) is a venture fund founded to promote development in rural and semi-urban India. Aavishkaar believes entrepreneurs can be a powerful force for development. To this end, the firm provides micro-equity funding (Rs. 10 lacs to Rs. 2 Crore), approximately USD $20 thousand to USD $500 thousand) and operational and strategic support to commercially viable companies increasing income in or providing goods and services to rural or semi-urban India.

Why micro venture capital?

Rural and semi-urban India – consisting of over 800 million people – still experiences a low standard of life, despite a decade of strong national growth.

Small to medium sized private enterprise can drive development in these underserved regions. Historically, this enterprise has been thwarted by misguided economic policies, infrastructure challenges, and limited access to capital. Recently, improved economic policies and infrastructure investment have removed many obstacles. A lack of access to capital, however, continues to inhibit widespread growth. Micro-credit is too small and too restrictive to be used for true business creation. Conventional venture capital focuses on businesses requiring USD $1 million+ that target urban regions or service export. Businesses smaller in scale addressing rural and semi-urban India cannot find the risk capital they need. Aavishkaar strives to fill this gap.

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