There are hundreds of Social Enterprises (SEs) working in Asia that will at some point need to raise investment capital. IIX, through its private placement platform, Impact Partners, addresses this need by connecting SEs to investors who not only provide funding, but also support their social mission.
Every quarter, Impact Partners holds a showcase to enable SEs with innovative business models and great potential for growth, to pitch their businesses and investment requirements to impact investors. In March we held a showcase for Indian SEs at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Singapore and also two webinars for investors unable to attend. Six SEs from various sectors such as energy, education and waste management presented to a group of 50 investors. We recently announced that the first two of these SEs successfully raised investment through this process.
The first is SEED Schools, an education SE based in Hyderabad, India. It was established to invest in and operate low cost private schools (LCPS) in India with a strong focus to improve the standard of education. SEED Schools provides a full range of services to improve the learning outcomes and operational efficiencies in LCPSs. The funding, which IIX has facilitated, brings the total amount of funding that SEED Schools has raised to US$650,000. This will help it work in one more school and impact 2,000 students.
We also worked with Waste Capital Partners (WCP), which environmentally processes municipal waste to create compost and recyclables. It currently works through its subsidiary, Waste Ventures India (WVI), which has been tasked by the state of Andhra Pradesh to environmentally process waste in 44 municipalities, which will make WVI one of the largest waste management companies in India. WCP has raised US$605,000 of investment for this project, against an original target of US$500,000.
Impact Partners works with a myriad of SEs; our latest showcase in June at Impact Forum 2014 saw seven SEs from Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines and India present their businesses. Outstanding presentations were made, which we hope will help all 7 SEs raise investment in the coming months. To find out how to become an Impact Partner and for more information about these enterprises, please email the Impact Partners team, or visit the Impact Partners.
Dharisha Mirando & Ria Bhatnagar
Corporate Finance
IIX