Mumbai, Jul 7, 2014: The Intellecap Impact Investment Network, in partnership with the Consulate General of the United States in Mumbai and FemPower of Bombay Chamber of Commerce, hosted the “Women’s Impact Investment Forum” on Wednesday, June 18, 2014. At a time when it becomes more universally critical for women to “Lean In” and take charge of their professional progress, this event brought together over 35 women leaders such as Meera Sanyal of AAP, Sonu Bhasin of Tata Capital Travel Forex & Cards, and Bharti Ramola Gupta of PWC to discuss why women can make effective investors in start-ups.
As the new Companies Act requirement to have women on company boards starts to take effect, the prospect to closely study and advise early stage companies can add significantly to the operational understanding and repertoire of women leaders. “Without such experience, women will continue to emain at a disadvantageous position as compared to their male counterparts”, said Neera Saggi, Chairperson, FemPower of Bombay Chambers of Commerce. The event positioned the impact investing space as offering a huge opportunity for women to emerge as leaders. Aditi Shrivastava, Head-Intellecap Impact Investment Network, said, “Currently only 5 of our 50 angel investors are women – this number needs to increase! Since the for-profit model for development has egalitarianism and empathy at its core, women investors and mentors can add tremendous value to ensure that the social and financial returns go hand-in-hand.”
Speakers included Sutapa Banjerjee, ex-CEO of Ambit Wealth Management, who discussed how early stage impact investing can fit into HNI portfolios. Members of Intellecap’s impact angel network Reena Mithal, Naveen Kshatriya, and Rema Subramanian shared their experiences of evaluating and investing to impact enterprises. Entrepreneurs Gayathri Vasudevan of LabourNet and Jose Peter of Arogya Finance gave the audience a close look into how impact businesses operate.
Questions from the audience revolved around the understanding the trade-off between financial and social returns, size of investment, time commitment required, and measurement of impact. The event was held at the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai. Raj Wadhwani, the Consul for Political and Economic Affairs at the Consulate concluded, “The United States Government is committed to increasing women’s economic power across South Asia. Here in India’s financial hub, it is particularly salient to focus on women’s leadership in business and participation in the economy. We’re pleased to co-host this event, which has fostered an excellent discussion. ”
Following the event, a few of the attendees have already signed up to mentor and invest through Intellecap’s angel network platform. Seeing the enthusiastic turnout, Intellecap and FemPower plan to hold another similar event around September 2014.
I3N:
The Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I3N) is India’s first angel network facilitating investments up to USD 1mn into early stage for-profit enterprises in the sectors of Agriculture, Clean Energy, Education, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Water & Sanitation. I3N sources and screens enterprises, and provides them with extensive consultations before showcasing them to its members. The network currently has over 50 members, and is currently inviting more HNIs and early stage funds to join and co-invest into double-bottom line enterprises. I3N is an initiative of Intellecap, which is a pioneer in providing innovative business solutions to profitable and sustainable enterprises dedicated to social and environmental change. For more information, visit http://i3n.co.in/
US Consulate:
The Consulate General promotes U.S.-India relations and progress towards common goals through information outreach, dialogue and exchange in western and central India, including Mumbai and the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Goa. For more information, visit: http://mumbai.usconsulate.gov
FemPower:
The Bombay Chambers of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) is India’s premier chamber of commerce and industry with over 1400 members. BCCI recently launched FEM Power, a vertical dedicated to help women entrepreneurs and executives by creating a pool of multi-talented and multi equipped business women to assist Indian women achieve professional enhancement and further economic empowerment. The activities of FemPower includes lectures, seminars, workshops, coaching, mentoring, help lines, individual problem solving, networking, knowledge sharing sessions to name a few. The Advisory board consists of prominent women leaders such as Indu Sahani, Zia Mody, Chandra Iyengar, Anjali Bansal, Devita Saraf and Neera Saggi.