Umang Shridhar grew up in a small village in Madhya Pradesh, and decided to use her commerce degree to start a company, KhaDigi, to employ and empower local artisans after seeing the poor conditions and poverty they face.

Jayanti Mahapatra started her business, Manikstu Agro to create local jobs and improve farmer incomes in Odisha, India. Her mission is to change the landscape of goat farming to keep farmers from migrating in search of work.

More of our fellow impact investors are proudly pronouncing that they are deploying their capital to have impact and that their financial goals are more modest. These “impact first” investors are moving out of the defensive crouch that seemed to characterize this approach in the early years of the industry.

Yogesh Kumar left a career in engineering to start a company that’s fighting gender inequality and poverty by giving women access to jobs traditionally reserved for men.

Ketan Parmar, founder of Krishi Naturals, believes organic farming can be a solution to the insufficient incomes and poor milk yields faced by small-scale dairy farmers in India today.

Priyanka Khandelwal started her company, Abira Creations, with one sole purpose in mind: empowering women. She employs traditionally marginalized women in the slum regions near Pune, India, to create jewelry and fashion accessories.

Upaya has partnered with Villgro as an Investment Partner for Villgro’s iPitch 2019 program. iPitch is a discovery program aimed an identifying the most impactful social ventures in India.

Upaya Social Ventures is pleased to announce that Kusi Hornberger and Nainesh Shah have been appointed to its board of directors.

Abhinav and Vasanthi share a passion for local crafts and nature-inspired design and together started their apparel brand, Peoli, to create livelihood opportunities for the women in Almora.

Sumanth and Sonali, had a vision to create a sustainable pottery in rural India and the drive to empower the underprivileged rural community in the process.