British International Investment

Elevar India V

IndiaSouth AsiaConsumer - HealthConsumer - other servicesFinancial services

Elevar India V is managed by Elevar Partners. Elevar invests minority stakes in early-stage companies providing essential goods and services to underserved low-income populations in India.

The fund will target companies across four key themes which include financial inclusion, agriculture, education, and MSMEs providing business services across healthcare, housing, and through marketplaces.

It’s one of the few funds in India targeting solution-oriented businesses, which enable marginalised customers to overcome barriers of inequality and difficulty accessing goods and services.

Through its existing four funds, Elevar has supported the creation of approximately 70,000 jobs, served 370,000 SMEs and 310,000 smallholder farmers, and provided loans to 20 million women borrowers through Monetary Financial Institutions.

Our investment

Description of the investment.

Elevar India V is an SME-focused fund that invests in early-stage companies providing essential goods and services to the underserved low-income populations in India.

Through our investment we will provide enhanced economic opportunities and increased access to goods and services for underserved populations across financial services, agribusiness, education and employment, and MSMEs (in affordable healthcare, housing, and marketplaces). Our investment will also develop the impact investing ecosystem in India by supporting an impact-focussed manager.

Impact information

Applies to investments made from 2019 onwards. The tabs in this section define what we expect to achieve through the investment, assessing the potential impact of the investment against six dimensions of impact. You can find more details on our methodology of assessing impact here.

What?

Impact
  • Improved access to. and affordability of, basic goods and services (SDG 1.4).
  • Provide economic opportunities to employees and suppliers across a range of sectors in India (SDG 10.3).

How?

How?

Invest in, and provide value-add to approximately 13-15 early-stage companies providing basic goods and services to the underserved population across various sectors (financial inclusion, MSMEs, agriculture).

Who?

Stakeholder Geography Characteristics
Employees and suppliers

India

Based on the existing track record, beneficiaries are likely to be low-skilled workers working in SMEs, women (through microfinance institutions) and smallholder farmers.

Consumers

India

Underserved segments with previous lack of access to affordable goods or services.

How much?

Scale Depth/Duration

The scale of impact is expected to be in line with previous Elevar funds, which cumulatively created approximately 70,000 direct jobs.

Under the previous four funds, Elevar's portfolio companies reached approximately 40m households.

Depth will vary depending on the type of good or service provided.

Contribution/additionality

Contribution/additionality
  • Financial additionality: Capital is not offered in sufficient quantity.
  • Value additionality: We have developed and agreed a gender action plan with Elevar, which is a 2X flagship fund

Risk

Unexpected Impact Risk
  • by investing in microfinance companies, we are exposed to lending activities which can bring risks around customer indebtedness. This will be a priority for monitoring and the manager will seek to support the implementation of good customer protection principles.

Impact score

Impact score (at point of investment)

The Impact Score is a tool to help us manage our performance against our strategic impact objectives. It is designed to incentivise investments that support our productive, sustainable, and inclusive objectives. You can find out more here.

The Impact Score is published for investments made from 2022 onwards. The Impact Scores are calculated at the point of investment. We publish the Impact Scores of new investments annually, once the information has been externally assured by an independent third party.

8

Environmental and social information

  • Environmental and social summary

    A high-level description of the environmental and social aspects of the investment. This may include a summary of key environmental and social risks identified during environmental and social due diligence (ESDD); key elements of an environmental and social action plan (ESAP); or ways in which we plan to support the investee improve environmental and social standards, such as through their environmental and social management system (ESMS); as well as any other priority areas agreed with the investee.

  • Environmental and social risk

    A risk category rating, which indicates the level of environmental and social risk associated with an investment. For an explanation of the categorisations used, see here. We consistently provide an environmental and social risk category for all investments screened from 2023 onwards.

Environmental and social summary

We agreed an ESAP focused on strengthening the integration of environmental and social risk management across the investment cycle, the development of a grievance mechanism and safeguarding procedures.

Environmental and social risk

Medium-High

Reporting and Complaints Mechanism

The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism allows anyone outside BII to report alleged breaches of the business integrity or environmental and social provisions of BII’s Policy on Responsible Investing. This includes breaches made by BII, a BII investee, or a portfolio company of a fund in which BII has invested. The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism Rules are available here. Reports and complaints can be submitted by email to [email protected] or by mail. See more details on our Reporting and Complaints Mechanism here.

For any other general enquiries contact us at [email protected]

  • Key facts

    Last updated

    When the last quarterly update of the website database occurred.

    :
    June 2024
    Project number

    An identifier number shared by investments in the same project.

    :
    D5527
    Status

    The current status of the investment (green flag for active and red flag for exited).

    :
    Active
    Region

    The geographical region where the country is located. We currently invest in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and the Caribbean. In 2023, BII’s investment mandate was extended allowing it to invest in regional funds linked to Ukraine, with the majority of activity expected to begin post-war. Investments outside these regions were made prior to 2012 under previous investment mandates.

    :
    South Asia
    Sector

    We prioritise those sectors that facilitate development and need our capital the most. Our priority sectors contribute towards many of the Sustainable Development Goals. They range from investing in the power infrastructure that will provide people with better access to electricity, to investing in financial institutions that direct capital to the individuals and businesses that need it the most.

    :
    Consumer - Health, Consumer - other services, Financial services

    We provide capital in the following ways: directly – through direct equity, direct debt, guarantees and other non-intermediated financial instruments; and indirectly – principally through investment funds.

    For direct investments and fund investments, this is the date BII committed capital to the investments. This is typically the date on which legal agreements are signed by all parties.

    For the portfolio companies of our fund investments, this is the date (either the month or the quarter) on which the fund committed capital to the portfolio company.

    For direct equity investments, this is the date at which British International Investment exited the investment.

    For debt investments, this is the date at which the final debt repayment was made.

    For funds, this is the date at which the fund was terminated.

    For underlying fund investments, this is the date at which the fund manager exited the investment.

    The total amount committed, per financial instrument, per investment, on the date BII becomes subject to a binding legal obligation to provide funding or assume a contingent liability. This information is provided in US dollars.

    For direct investments, this is the amount that BII has committed to the business or project. For fund investments, this is the amount BII has committed to the fund.

    The currency in which the investment was made.

    Investment type :
    Fund
    Start date :
    December 2022
    Amount :
    $10m
    Currency of investment :
    USD
    Fund Manager:
    Elevar Equity Advisors
    Domicile

    The company or investment fund’s place of incorporation.

    :
    Cayman Islands
    2X Gender Finance

    Indicates whether the investment is ‘2X qualified’ using the 2X Challenge criteria. You can find out more here. It only applies to investments made from 2018 onwards, when the 2X Challenge was first launched.

    :
    Fully qualified

Investments made by this fund into companies:

For further information about these companies, visit https://elevarequity.com/

Investment name Country Region Sector Start date Status
Cloudphysician India South Asia Consumer - Health March 2023 Active
CureBay India South Asia Consumer - Health March 2023 Active
Niro India South Asia Financial services March 2023 Active
Peepul Tree India South Asia Consumer - other services March 2023 Active
Samunnati Financial Intermediation India South Asia Financial services March 2023 Active
Sarvagram India South Asia Financial services March 2023 Active
StrideOne India South Asia Financial services March 2023 Active
Tapsys Pvt. Ltd India South Asia Financial services March 2024 Active

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