The Artha Venture Challenge is a national competition run by the Artha Platform to find the most ambitious, early stage social entrepreneurs in India.
The challenge, managed by Ennovent on behalf of the Artha Platform is designed to fix a well-acknowledged problem – the missing middle in social finance where there is a lack of high risk, patient capital for early stage social ventures in the INR 25 lakh to 100 lakh range. By strengthening seed investment in social ventures in India and helping investors de-risk through co-investment, the Challenge aims to strategically deploy financial resources where it matters the most.
To ensure that good ideas have the support to become big, the Artha Venture Challenge is inviting applications from social ventures across India that have completed proof of concept and are seeking growth investment. Ventures must ideally be operating within the sectors of agriculture, energy (clean cook stoves and others), water or livelihoods. However, high-impact ventures that are operating in other sectors may also still apply.
Learn more about the challenge by visiting www.arthaventurechallenge.com
Through the Artha Venture Challenge, the selected cohort of finalists (upto 15 social entrepreneurs) will get the opportunity to pitch for up to $50k of funding if matched by the equivalent or more in co-investment. In addition, Artha will also work with the cohort to build a compelling growth story, find investors, make strategic connections and provide expert mentoring designed to keep pace with the fastest growing social ventures.
Worried that the winners may get selected but be unable to find co-investors? Don’t be. The Artha Venture Challenge is based on the Big Venture Challenge that has previously taken place in the UK where 10 early stage co-investment deals were closed within 10 months, attracting over £1m in co-investment, 67% of which was from new Angel investors who had never made an impact investment before.
If your enterprise or an enterprise you know is delivering positive impact and is seeking growth investment, then the Artha Venture Challenge is for you.
