Mission
A tremendous opportunity exists today to transform the face of investor/donor engagement
with the vast, untapped markets at the base of the pyramid ("BoP"), otherwise known
as the largest but poorest socio-economic group. In global terms, this refers to
the 2.5 billion people who live on less than a few dollars per day. The Artha Platform
mission is to help unlock this opportunity.
Nearly every player active in the venture philanthropy and impact investing space
will have understood, once active, that relationships drive investment in this sector
- perhaps even more so than in traditional spheres. Most investors are looking at
the same deal flow in any given developing country, and it becomes quickly apparent
that the costs of due diligence for small companies in a large country like India
are disproportionately high relative to the investment requirements sought by most
entrepreneurs. There is also a unique characteristic of this sector; impact investors
and donors are willing to collaborate and share information more freely with one
another than their purely financially driven counterparts.
Artha offers a window into a virtualized space for better information exchange and
collaboration between investors, entrepreneurs & their support organizations, and
the intermediaries & agents of change on the ground. However, Artha itself is neither
involved in the due diligence contracts, nor in the structuring or closure of investment
deals. The Artha team both invites enterprises into the pipeline, and accepts appropriate
socially-oriented enterprises that apply to be listed in the pipeline through a
link on the website.
Use the Artha Platform to:
1. Solidify and formalize your contact base; expand your network!
2. Identify new partners and co-investors for due diligence purposes;
3. Learn who knows who, how social businesses and enterprises are being supported
in India, and what their current operating 'story' is;
4. Coordinate with others looking at the same opportunities you are, and minimize
the redundancy, effort and cost of conducting due diligence on BoP companies;
5. Support the businesses of in-country capacity builders, as the fundamental drivers
of the sustainability of an emerging asset class.