DALLAS, June 15, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Beyond Capital Fund, an impact investment fund that invests in companies that seek to improve the lives of people living in low income communities in India and East Africa, is pleased to announce its recent investment in Haqdarshak Empowerment Solutions. Haqdarshak is an early-stage enterprise that is increasing access to government and private welfare services for last-mile individuals throughout India. Beyond Capital joins a group of investors for this pre-Series A investment round, which was kicked off in July 2020 by Acumen Fund and Upaya Social Ventures.
Haqdarshak Empowerment Solutions was founded in 2016 by Aniket Doegar, PR Ganapathy, Mayank Garg, and Asha Krishnan. The company provides tech-enabled support services for government welfare benefits using a web and mobile platform complemented by a network of field workers, a majority of whom are female, known as Haqdarshaks. The company has trained more than 10,000 independent agents who have unlocked benefits for more than 654,000 citizens throughout India, totaling an aggregate value of $72 million. Haqkarshak has partnered with foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and the Hindustan Unilever Foundation to further its important initiatives.
Access to social welfare and financial inclusion services at the last mile has been a critical challenge in India. Currently, only 40 percent of Indians are able to apply for the government services and goods that they need, as a 2017 World Bank study concluded. Haqdarshak plays a critical role in this ecosystem, acting as the bridge between national welfare offerings and their intended beneficiaries, thereby making the world's largest democracy operate more efficiently and ensure the bottom 300 million Indians receive the benefits they are entitled.
With a robust tech platform as its base, Haqdarshak can customise its products for multiple use cases relating to welfare and access. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Haqdarshak narrowed its focus on migrant and daily wage workers, supporting them with acquiring essential identity documents, registrations, and direct relief benefits. Haqdarshak also launched a Covid-19 Resource Center to support vaccine registration, insurance coverage, and more in India's most rural communities.
"Our commitment and vision of ensuring every citizen and small business in India gets access to government schemes and services is strengthened with this investment. We are focused on our solutions for Covid-19 response, services for MSMEs and new digital offerings for our last mile. This investment round will help us scale up our core platforms and reach our goal of ensuring 100 million citizens get access to government financial services by 2030," said Aniket Dogar, Haqdarshak Founder and CEO. "We are extremely happy and excited our investors have shown faith in this vision especially in the current pandemic business environment. Their expertise in scaling businesses will help us build core teams going forward."
"Haqdarshak has differentiated itself from its competition by focusing on providing an integrative tech-assisted application support system," added Beyond Capital Fund CEO Eva Yazhari. "The company's approach to democratizing healthcare and financial inclusion, by ensuring the neediest individuals receive access to public and private services, strengthens communities and improves individual well-being, the core tenet of Beyond Capital's mission."
This investment, which is being matched by Beyond Capital Fund's co-investing partner the Eckenstein Geigy Stiftung, will allow Haqdarshak to expand Covid-19 vaccinations, as well as health insurance coverage to more than 100 million citizens with a strategic digital push and investment in open source tools. The investment will be used for technology enhancement (B2C and B2B offerings), hiring quality talent in execution and tech teams, and strengthening the current evaluation and monitoring process.
ABOUT HAQDARSHAK EMPOWERMENT SOLUTIONS
Haqdarshak Empowerment Solutions designs and implements agent-based and direct-to-beneficiary welfare scheme linkage programs for corporates, NGOs, philanthropies, and government departments.
Please visit https://haqdarshak.com/ for more information.
ABOUT BEYOND CAPITAL FUND
Beyond Capital Fund is an impact investment fund that invests in for-profit early-stage companies throughout East Africa and India. The fund invests in businesses that are focused on greater access to health care, food security, sanitation, financial inclusion, and energy, which can increase the quality of life for consumers living in low-income communities. Though the fund seeks market-rate financial returns, Beyond Capital Fund is structured as a nonprofit, which permits the organization to emphasize fidelity to its social mission alongside its financial mandate.
Please visit http://www.beyondcapitalfund.org for more information.
Media Contact
Mathilde Beniflah, Beyond Capital Fund, +1 3478644887, [email protected]
SOURCE Beyond Capital Fund
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