More than half the people on the globe – approximately 4 billion live on incomes below US$8 a day. For those of us that live in India, this statistic shouldn’t come as a surprise but what may be surprising is that together they represent a US$5 trillion potential global market.
People living in these markets have limited access to affordable goods and services and also face severe challenges in supplying labour, products and services to markets.
For example, despite earning significantly less, low-income people have a higher daily spend on securing lighting than their urban middle-income counterparts – what’s more commonly referred to as the ‘poverty penalty’. What’s worse is that even after spending more, the lighting they do get is of low-quality and poses significant health risks – simply because they are not connected to the electricity grid and cannot afford expensive alternate sources of light like me or you.
While projects funded by development aid are doing important work in resolving some of these issues, it is not enough. For-profit companies with innovations in the form of products, services, processes or technologies are needed to make a fair profit and a sustainable impact in low-income markets.
It is for this reason that Ennovent was established as an impact investment holding in late 2008. With a fund of 2 million Euro, Ennovent’s Impact Investment Holding was created to transform early-stage enterprises into professional and scalable organisations by providing capital and by adding value.
However, we (I look after the communications at Ennovent) soon realized that early-stage enterprises require more than money to really move from idea to innovation and impact communities at scale. It is then that Ennovent transformed into an Innovation Accelerator.
Today, Ennovent offers an integrated set of services designed to move enterprises from concept to scale. Our complimentary set of services enables clients to discover enterprises with novel solutions, develop business models to start up enterprises, provide finance by facilitating early-stage investments and grow operations to scale profit and impact. To do this we work with a variety of stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, experts, development organisations, NGOs, government and industry bodies etc.
What’s unique about Ennovent is our focus on impact before profits. Despite being a for-profit enterprise, we consciously ensure that our drive to create a sustainable future is not sacrificed for short-term financial profits. Moreover, our dedicated focus on early-stage enterprises as well as multi-channel approach that offers support to enterprises at varying levels of customization enables us to stand out from others within this sector.
To sum it up quickly, Ennovent accelerates innovations through three integrated channels:
- The Ennovent Network, an online community that connects members globally and facilitates virtual collaboration.
- The Ennovent Circle, an exclusive membership-based group for entrepreneurs, investors, mentors and experts to source, mentor, invest in and scale for-profit enterprises in India.
- The Ennovent Solutions, our customized services, develop and manage tailored services and initiatives such as funds, challenges and support programs for clients.
We are an entrepreneurial team committed to driving innovations forward by trying new approaches and collaboratively working with communities. It is for this reason that since 2008, Ennovent has worked with over 4,500 Network members, 15 Circle members and 10 Solution clients to accelerate over 50 innovations.
We envision a sustainable future for low-income people in developing countries, especially India.
A future where healthcare is easily accessible in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of our country. A future where more homes in India can gain access to a more efficient source of power so that micro-entrepreneurs in villages are able to extend shop hours and generate additional income, while more children will be able to do their homework at night, thereby considerably improving their education opportunities.
If you are an entrepreneur working on a concept for low-income markets or a subject expert, investor or mentor that would like to help other enterprises within this space, get involved by joining the Ennovent Network now.
