OUR BLOG
Breaking The Bias For Women Entrepreneurs
“There hasn’t been a better time to be a woman entrepreneur”, said Ekta Jaju, Founder of ONganic in one of the conversations we had with her last year. This stuck with me. And it’s absolutely true, but I only partly agree.
Economic Justice Requires More Than Money Alone
The world has made great strides in cutting extreme poverty in half in the past 20 years, notwithstanding the devastating effects of COVID. But it is also a basic fact that we live on a planet that could easily provide adequate food, shelter and healthcare for our entire population. And yet over 700 million people continue to live in unjust poverty.
Why You Shouldn't Look For An Annual Impact Report From Upaya
You might wonder where Upaya’s impact report is. The truth is, we don't do “an impact report.” That might be surprising given that roughly 10% of our operating budget goes to tracking and analyzing the impact that our portfolio is having in job creation. We don't do an annual report, because we collect and publish data and analysis on a rolling basis all year long.
Ten Social Businesses Selected For The Upaya And YSB 2022 Accelerator
Upaya Social Ventures (Upaya), a nonprofit organization growing small businesses to create jobs for the extreme poor, today announced the nine early-stage Indian companies selected to participate in the Upaya and YSB 2022 Accelerator
Covid Reminded Us Not To Become Complacent In Our Mission Against Poverty
For most of Upaya’s existence, our momentum has mirrored a consistent trend of reducing extreme poverty in the world
Assessing The Damage Of India’s Second COVID Surge
There are slow and steady signs of life returning to normal in this country of 1.4 billion, but talk to any Indian, and the trauma from the second Covid surge is still fresh
A New Chapter At Upaya
After 10 soul-fulfilling years, I have decided to transition out of a full-time role at Upaya. My decision is a moment of triumph-
What Does It Take To Keep Going?
Ten years ago this month, we were three founders of a fledgling non-profit organization, and this was our reality. Some would say we had no business doing what we were doing. None of us had ever started nor run a non-profit. None of us had formal fundraising experience, nor were we independently wealthy
10 Things We Have Learned In 10 Years
We're taking this opportunity to look back at the many lessons this decade has taught us. When our co-founders (Sachi, Steve, and Sriram) launched Upaya Social Ventures, the world of entrepreneurship and small and growing business support looked very different
Severe Second Wave Of Covid Cases In India
We at Upaya are devastated by the severe second wave of Covid cases sweeping across India, and remain steadfastly committed to supporting our team, our entrepreneurs, and their jobholders during these uncertain times
Uncovering Hidden Gender Wage Inequalities
With our objective of creating dignified jobs clearly defined, our Impact Management strategy thus leads us into understanding and measuring what, how, and how much impact the jobholders are experiencing with their jobs and the resultant income.
Making Space For Strong Women To Be Themselves
In January, Upaya selected and launched a cohort of nine women-led businesses for a special accelerator in collaboration with MIT D-Lab. The focus of this program is to take a holistic approach to build capacity for investment readiness
Let's Not Waste This Crisis
We must take the lessons from the last 30 years of fighting poverty to build a dam against this slide back into poverty for too many. One of those lessons is that people experiencing extreme poverty are not helpless
Understanding The 2021 Scale-Ups Accelerator’s Selection Criteria
The 2021 Scale-Ups Accelerator is an opportunity for early-stage women entrepreneurs to make their start-ups investment-ready
Building A Business From The Ground-Up: A Conversation With Nand Kishore Chaudhary, Jaipur Rugs
As part of the ongoing resources we offer our entrepreneurs, we were extremely delighted to host Mr. Nand Kishore Chaudhary, Founder of Jaipur Rugs, to share his experiences and insight