Since 2015, Village Capital has sought to address significant gaps that India continues to face in financial health despite major progress on the parts of both the government and private sector to expand access and participation. According to the World Bank, while 80% of the adult population in India holds a bank account, in large part thanks to government programs like Jan Dhan Yojana, 48% of these accounts remained dormant or unfunded in 2017. One reason behind this lack of engagement is due to an issue often avoided in mainstream conversations around financial health: consumers’ varying levels of assets and their ability to generate income to create financial stability. Financial health has long focused on access to, and affordability of, financial services, but it hinges on a person’s ability to create, and grow, wealth as well.
The Village Capital Financial Health India 2018 program will support ventures working in the area of financial access and participation as well as employment readiness and upskilling. Through this initiative, we seek to support ventures addressing core drivers of individual/household financial health and community economic well-being.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The program seeks ventures doing one or more of the following:
- Improving financial health for low-to-moderate income individuals and households by expanding access to tools for income generation and / or financial shock protection;
- Providing fintech solutions to support access to and management of basic needs such as health, education, housing etc; and bringing access closer to the customers;
- Improving financial literacy and providing meaningful and sustainable incentives for developing healthy financial habits;
- Enabling greater formalization and transparency of financial transactions;
- Building customer understanding of banking and banking systems in India (i.e. outreach tools, learning modules, and incentivized trials for users to start adopting banking methods);
- Applying solutions to drive revenue growth & employment generation in the MSME / SME segment;
- Expanding access to global job markets;
- Expanding access to vocational training as part of higher education, as well as on-the-job upskilling options;
- Providing solutions for access to, and expansion of, workplace readiness training & support initiatives.
Furthermore, participating ventures must fulfill all of the following criteria:
- At least one full-time team member based in India
- A minimum viable product
- Meaningful customer or business validation (not limited to revenue, can also be successful pilot studies, number of users, and/or strategic partnerships)
Program dates and locations:
Workshop 1: Oct 9 – 12
Workshop 2: Nov 13 – 16
Workshop 3: Dec 18 – 21
The workshops will likely take place in Bangalore, Delhi and/or Mumbai, but locations are still being finalized. Selected startups are required to have at least one C-level team member attend all three workshops, and Village Capital will bear flight and lodging costs for up to two team members to attend.
For more information about the program, please email Perry Nunes at [email protected].
Deadline: August 10th at 5:00pm IST
