GP Corner

General

01. Ankur Capital was founded by two women. It is not very common to see two women lead and manage an impact fund especially in India. How did this journey begin and tell us about your experiences as an all women founding team?

We both come from deep corporate experience of 5 decades when we started Ankur Capital. We both have extensive experience working from innovation to market, early stage to growth stage. We saw the internet penetration happening as well as many entrepreneurs starting off ventures in deep science and tech in sectors such as agri, health, education, fintech, etc. But the capital flow for such early stages ventures was still not available and in addition these companies needed lot more support in terms of organization building. That’s where our prior experience as entrepreneurs and in building out organizations came in as part of the capital ++ model of investment philosophy of Ankur Capital.

02. You have a diverse and interesting portfolio of companies across Ag-tech, Food, Vernacular technology, Healthcare and others. Could you tell us a little about the firm’s overarching investment strategy and vision?

Our vision is to seed early stage cutting edge science and technology business that makes structural changes in sectors that can create a more inclusive society. We strongly believe India is the perfect sandbox for building technologies for the next billion that can then address the next 5 billlion globally.

Sector specific

03. What is the relevance of Deep tech and IP based for your investment strategy? Are there particular product segments that are of greater interest to you?

Deep, frontier tech and IP based businesses form the core pillars of our investment strategy. We strongly believe that tech and innovation is critical in creating disproportionate impact. The sectors that we see this deep impact happening is in the areas of agritech, healthtech and vernacular technologies, with fintech and edtech forming the other enablers

04. Deep Tech start-ups require large amounts of patient impact capital before they can commercialise their product. Do you think this is a deterrent for private investors to divert capital to this sector? What is your financial strategy for deep tech investments?

Deep tech falls in the high risk, high return and high impact and will always be of interest to global investors. Deep tech is also of interest to strategic investors and other financial investors looking at global markets. The opportunity to disrupt is huge as the next 5 billion globally is waiting to be part of inclusive markets and technology can be the only driver to address it. Deep tech for impact can create disproportionate impact and returns. That’s the core of our strategy.

05. Globally the Fem-Tech (female focussed healthcare technology) market is gaining traction. What is the future of these products in the Indian market? Do you see Ankur capital and other Indian impact investors putting their money in this sector?

We are happy to look at Femtech market, as it has huge potential. As the general standard of living and more gender sensitivity rises, the demand for femtech is definitely increasing and we do see that as a big opportunity. While we have an investment in early breast cancer detection, our other health tech investments also have majority women customer base. We look forward to setting right the gender disparity in access to healthcare.

Effects of the Pandemic and Future Outlook

06. Do you think the pandemic has forced impact investors to renew their strategy to unlock markets for the next billion? What is Ankur Capital’s strategy to drive the ‘next billion market’?

The pandemic has brought 3 sectors to the forefront – agri, health and education. All 3 placing the next billion as consumers and producers and hitherto in the background. With the type, quality, quantity, sustainability, healthiness and traceability of food has become very important and brings the farmers as an important stakeholder to be addressed. Historically lagging infra investments in rural health, technology is going to be the main vehicle to create healthcare access to the next billion in India and the 5 billion globally. For e.g there is going to be huge investments in cold chain infrastructure to transport vaccines to every remote place on earth. Similarly education is being revamped and tech interventions in learning will be an integral part of the next billion.

We are excited to be seeding businesses which can create both impact and financial returns over the next decade.

07. You announced the first close of your second fund in January this year. The world then went into a complete lockdown in March. Has the pandemic affected your investment strategy and investment plan? What has been the response from LPs to this challenge ?

Fortunately for us, we had done most of the our fund raising before the lockdown. The paperwork has taken a bit longer due to the lockdown, but we hope to close that out soon. Regarding our investments, we have already completed 2 investments, with two more in progress. We are on track on both our fund raise and investments. Both have taken a bit longer than earlier budgeted, but overall its been on track.

08. What is the one change you want to see in the Indian Impact Investing industry in the next decade?

We would like see the Indian Impact investment industry take more risks in terms of investing in innovation, cutting edge technologies, invest to take Indian businesses global