1 Artha Impact has been deeply engaged in India’s impact ecosystem for over a decade. From your perspective, what makes India a compelling landscape for philanthropic capital? How does Artha Impact’s approach reflect the belief in philanthropy’s power to drive systemic change?

India offers a compelling landscape for philanthropic and impact capital due to its unique convergence of demographic, economic, and environmental factors. With a youthful population where 65% are below the age of 35, continued substantial challenges related to access to critical services in health, education, energy, and livelihoods, and rapid economic growth expected to make it the third-largest economy by 2027, India provides an ideal setting for transformative investments. The country’s vast cultural and ecological diversity, coupled with its highly innovative and dynamic population and its pressing climate challenges such as air pollution, water scarcity, and rising temperatures, necessitates innovative solutions that can be both scalable and sustainable. This is the perfect playground for mission-driven capital to support models that require fresh thinking, risk-taking, and patience.

Artha Impact embodies the belief in (venture) philanthropy’s power to drive systemic change through our approach. Since our early days, we have tried to integrate some element of systems thinking with an emphasis on collaboration and have aligned our investment strategy to try to identify enterprises and business leaders who are driven by a need to address systemic barriers to access, particularly in early-stage markets. Simply put, at a basic level, our desire is to be as catalytic as possible, working with a wide spectrum of partners (like Menterra Ventures) and friendly, like-minded organizations in co-investing as frequently as possible in ventures that would otherwise not have an easy road to venture philanthropic financing and capitalization. To be clear, Artha Impact is not really about philanthropy per se, but rather represents patience, value-, and people-focused approach to the deployment of patient capital, with a concurrent emphasis on commercial viability.

2 Artha Impact has showcased that venture philanthropy can drive systemic change. How does your investment thesis integrate this belief into practice? Could you share examples of how your strategy has evolved to tackle root causes in healthcare, education, and agriculture?

Artha Impact's investment thesis is centered on the conviction that business solutions can effectively address systemic challenges in sectors such as healthcare, education, and agriculture. Our operating premise is that our kind of capital, reflected in the strategies of great peers like Menterra Ventures, Beyond Capital Ventures, Upaya Ventures, Seed Fund, Insaan Group, Unitus and so many others, can be a direct driver of increased human well-being outcomes related to greater access to core services and material improvements to opportunities for income generation where it may not have been previously possible.

By deploying patient capital with timeframes of 5-7 years or more, Artha Impact has been investing in early-growth stage, high-impact businesses in India that focus on underserved communities for approximately 18 years. A few examples of our work include:

• Frontier Markets, a tech-enabled social commerce platform, has reached over 1 million rural households in India and expanded its network of women influencers, known as "Sahelis," to 35,000. The company secured partnerships with Mastercard, HP, and Saint-Gobain to empower women as digital banking agents and plans to scale operations to 20,000 villages across seven states by 2026. This innovative model bridges rural access gaps, delivering essential products and fostering women's leadership.
• Virohan, a healthcare-focused edtech platform, achieved significant milestones with approximately USD 5.7 million in gross sales during the financial year 2023/2024, marking a 147% year-on-year increase. Recognized in Forbes' top 100 companies to watch in 2024, Virohan is in fact currently strategically raising USD 5 million in a Pre-Series B3 round to sustain its operations and expand its innovative training programs across India.
• NaturaYuva, a supplier of organic ingredients from medicinal and aromatic plants, supports Indian smallholder farming communities in adopting organic agroforestry and transitioning from monoculture to polyculture. The company has built a network of 29 smallholder farming communities, providing resources and infrastructure to enhance sustainable farming practices. NaturaYuva's operations span eleven Indian states, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and West Bengal, aiming to empower farmers and promote biodiversity conservation.

3 The Impact for Breakfast initiative has been a unique platform for fostering collaboration within the impact ecosystem. Could you share your vision for expanding this initiative in India? What other strategies or platforms are you considering to engage domestic investors and philanthropists more effectively?

Over the last 17 years or so, Impact for Breakfast (IFB) has grown into a vibrant global community of approximately 4,300 members across 35 chapters, creating a unique informal space for collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and dialogue within the impact investing ecosystem. As we look to expand into India, we are excited about the opportunity to connect domestic investors, philanthropists, and social enterprises with our international network, amplifying the potential for meaningful impact. This expansion, of course requires the right partners who share our commitment to fostering collaboration and driving systemic change, and we know that different models have to be adapted to local business cadences, particularly in big traffic-prone cities where breakfast meetings may or may not be palatable! We do envision hosting India-specific events that address critical areas like renewable energy, healthcare, and education while showcasing local success stories to a global audience and look forward to partnering with individuals (kindred spirits!) and organizations who are as excited to contribute to the specific mission-investing social capital of India’s vibrant impact landscape as we are.

Our big news of 2025 is that IFB is now planning for a more commercial approach as an added layer to its core service, such that our multi-city international presence and the strength of our now-global network may be brought to bear on those who seek access to the right networks in more systematic ways. As an event partner to The Conduit in London and as members of a number of high-value networks like AVPN, Impact Europe, Impact Investors Council (IIC), and other groups in Europe, we continue to look proactively at a wide range of collaborative and partnership approaches to provide win-win outcomes for the ecosystem. For us, fostering relationships between those abroad ‘looking in’ and facilitating learning and active practical cooperation with domestic investors and philanthropic organizations is a key part of delivering on our mission.

4 In 2022, IIC reported that 60% of the total amount of impact investments made by HNIs and Family Offices were through direct investment and the rest through impact funds. As an entity that does both direct and fund investments, what differences do you observe in the operational strategies, risk management, scalability, and the long-term outcomes of direct investments vs impact fund investments? How do you see these approaches complementing each other in achieving broader impact objectives?

It is, of course, a very different experience and process to appraise and engage in a fund vs. a direct investment in a company; this expands not only to the terms, structure, and process of execution of a transaction – but also to the sets of questions one must ask overtly of the teams they plan to work with and their relationship with them. Naturally, a role on the board of a company will necessitate a different level of engagement vs. receiving LP updates from fund managers.

In terms of engagement and learning associated with operational strategies, we have largely found the experience of direct investment far more tangible and ‘close’ to the heart of the enterprise mission, although the exception to this rule for us remains our long-time partnership with Menterra. With Menterra’s team, we have had the exceptional opportunity to still be part of several of the portfolio companies’ growth journeys, especially in cases like Iron Kettle where the fund team is serving as a project developer—engaged from the very inception of the company and involved in every aspect of business operation, branding, and go-to-market strategy.

Investor experiences will thus vary a great deal—as a function of their relationships and trust with managers and entrepreneurs alike. From our perspective, adopting a complementary strategy has many benefits, as there is much to learn from a dual direct/fund approach, not only in terms of absorbing best practices and valuable insights from local professional fund managers with deep on-ground experience but also benefiting from really understanding the pain, joy, and true challenges and sacrifices that entrepreneurs and their teams have to face every single day.

5 Regulatory frameworks and institutional support are crucial for growth. From your perspective, what regulatory changes or ecosystem enhancements are needed to fuel impact investing in India?

To truly unlock the potential of impact investing in India, there’s a need for conducive regulations and a stronger ecosystem to address existing barriers for capital that seeks impact. The challenging task of introducing clear standards for measuring and reporting social and environmental impact to build trust and transparency for investors is one that is relevant not only to India, but to most countries in the world. Tax breaks for investors, simpler paths to capital repatriation, coupled with easier-to-access subsidies for entrepreneurs leading socially focused enterprises—especially in crucial sectors like healthcare, education, and agriculture—could make a world of difference if delivered in timely and transparent ways.

Simplifying rules for foreign investments in impact sectors would also open the floodgates for additional patient capital, in particular. Beyond regulations, India benefits greatly from strong capacity-building initiatives like accelerators and incubators to nurture early-stage ventures tackling real-world problems – but how these entities interact and interface with the local capital markets and local private wealth is still a big opaque question, solved thankfully in part by the likes of organizations like the IIC. Certainly, we are particularly sensitive to the role of collaborative platforms for connecting investors, policymakers, and entrepreneurs, so everyone can work better together to address systemic challenges. On that note, government-backed credit guarantees could also likely reduce risks and encourage private investment, and easier/simpler visibility on public finance schemes and how to align private injections of capital alongside – at a practical level, would be hugely beneficial to the ecosystem writ large. With attention to areas like these, India can easily seal its position as a global leader in impact investing, leveraging the vast talent and entrepreneurial spirit that characterizes the nation.

6 What are Artha Impact’s strategic priorities for driving deeper impact in India? Are there specific sectors, innovative financial structures, or new types of engagement you plan to explore in the next five years?

Artha’s strategic priorities for driving deeper impact in India continue to remain on core sectors where access is a driver for livelihoods and human wellbeing: agriculture, health, and skills. We are keen to explore testing new and innovative financial structures but admittedly have done little to nothing new in this arena, as we’ve simply adapted to the status quo of the instruments typically used by most. One of the goals of answering this question is to turn this around to our peers in the landscape and invite suggestions from those who are testing new approaches that optimize flexibility, co-financing and certainly – intentionality when it comes to access to liquidity that will drive exits for active investors who have taken a risk when it mattered most. Like many others who have been working in this field, we now come to a point where it’s time to also prove that the models that have scaled – financially and with their impact – can exit their investors.