Our Blog
Pioneering Capital Must Feed The Growth Of The Impact Economy
Impact investing as a practice and priority has evolved rapidly over the past decade but still lacks the supportive infrastructure provided by public policy, reporting standards, and industry associations that disseminate best practices.
Upaya Social Ventures Invests In Three Companies From 2019 Accelerator
This is the first year that we have selected three companies for investment out of the cohort and I’m thrilled that we are also maintaining our commitment to ensuring an equal balance of male and female founders.
Upaya Social Ventures Adds Laymen Agro To Its Growing Investment Portfolio Of Social Startups
Upaya Social Ventures announced its latest investment in Laymen Agro, an early-stage social enterprise based in Tamil Nadu that procures and delivers farm-fresh milk and vegetables to families in Coimbatore
Upaya Social Ventures And Beyond Capital Invest In ZooFresh Foods To Benefit Smallholder Farmers In India
Upaya Social Ventures and Beyond Capital are pleased to announce recent investments in ZooFresh Foods, a social enterprise based in Odisha, India that connects smallholder farmers with underserved markets to eliminate waste, increase farmer incomes, and enhance consumer access to local meats
Where Are The Jobs? Findings And Insights From Upaya’s Accelerator Application Process
We at Upaya Social Ventures have been running our accelerator program since 2017. In the previous two years, the accelerator program was focused on specific sectors that we believed have the strongest potential for job creation
Entrepreneurs Helping Entrepreneurs: Tim Wade Real Estate
This year, Upaya is celebrating the resilience our partner entrepreneurs exhibit as they build and expand their businesses, and the resilience their jobholders gain as a result of their stable, dignified jobs
One-Size-Fits-All Investment?
The segment that Upaya most often invests in, dynamic enterprises, includes companies with reliable revenue streams but not necessarily hockey-stick growth. We are okay with that because the high-growth companies that get a lot of attention are not the ones creating significant numbers of jobs, especially not jobs for the extreme poor.
The “Missing Middle” Is More Complicated
In our industry of impact investing, there has long been a lament that small and growing businesses (SGBs) are the “missing middle” of the space—these are the companies that are too large for microfinance funding and too small for traditional investors or even most impact investors
Using Local Flavors And Enterprise To Empower Women In The Hinterland
Founded by the entrepreneur duo, Shagun Setia and Keshav Parthasarathy, Rural Roots is a food processing enterprise which is bringing 100% natural, hand-made pickles prepared by women living in remote parts of Uttar Pradesh straight to the urban kitchens
This Startup Makes Organic Farming More Profitable For Small Holder Farmers
In 2017, Jitendra founded Aikya Organics, a seed-to-fork company that sells organic products that are grown, processed and packaged by small & marginal farmers and sold to urban families and organic brands