Frontier Markets

🌟 Congratulations Ajaita S. to be featured in The Independent's Inaugural #Climate100 List! 🌟 We are absolutely ecstatic to share some game-changing news — Ajaita S. has been featured in 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭'𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭-𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭, a prestigious and exclusive selection of the world's 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 climate innovators! 🌍💥 This monumental recognition spotlights 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 who are rewriting the future through groundbreaking solutions in the fight against climate change. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝟏𝟎𝟎 List brings together visionaries who are 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 and 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲—from 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 and 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 to 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐬 and 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬. Ajaita’s inclusion in the 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 & 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐲 alongside giants like Satya Nadella, Lisa Jackson Yvon Chouinard Boris Gamazaychikov Eva Zabey Jonathan Maxwell Scott Tew Stefania Di Bartolomeo Randy Durband and Lauren Uppink Calderwood  highlights her incredible leadership and unwavering commitment to building a sustainable world. 💡🚀 This honor recognizes 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 who are tackling some of the planet’s biggest challenges with revolutionary ideas—from hydrogen storage and plastic-eating bacteria to chemical-free textile dyeing—and Ajaita is proud to be among them. Join us in celebrating this massive moment! The future is in our hands, and the time to act is NOW! 🌎💚 #BigNews #Climate100 #ClimateLeadership #SustainableFuture #TheIndependent #ClimateChange #BusinessAndFinance Beyond Capital Ventures Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth Echoing Green UBS UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Climate Group Clinton Global Initiative Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Artha Impact (Rianta Capital)

Unlocking Blended Finance for Women's Economic Empowerment at She Leads Bharat: Udyam Fireside Chat and Roundtable 🚀 We are thrilled to share the success of our first-ever She Leads Bharat: Udyam fireside chat and roundtable held on 26th November at the Sankalp Forum 2024 in Varanasi that brought together over 30 pioneering donors and investors who engaged around catalysing capital for women’s economic empowerment.  Our esteemed panelists—Leena Datwani (Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth), Saumya Lashkari (360 ONE Foundation), Sagarika Bose (SAP India) and Pooja Monga (Beyond Capital Ventures)—led an inspiring discussion on strategies for catalyzing blended capital for women economic empowerment and appreciated the power of the She Leads Bharat: Udyam platform in successfully being able to mobilize and deploy different forms of capital effectively and efficiently to advance women economic empowerment. Key Highlights: 1. Structure Demonstration: The event showcased how our She Leads Bharat:Udyam structure has successfully unlocked blended finance to enable gender impact, helping diverse partners understand their roles, and responsibilities, and how they fit into the bigger picture. 2. Role of different partners for blended finance: She Leads Bharat: Udyam operates with Frontier Markets (FM) as the technology and implementation partner, Frontier Innovations Foundation for mobilizing global capital and incubating implementation partners, and Saraj Jeevan India Foundation, which is CSR-compliant, to engage domestic capital. This structure enables various types of capital to come together seamlessly. 3. Blending capital is key: Understanding the different types of capital and the diverse roles it can play is key. For international and institutional donors, unlocking capital means providing viable gap funding that invites the private sector to take social enterprises seriously. For CSR partners, it's about scaling income elevation efforts, capacity building and creating the first credit footprints that enable direct funding to women entrepreneurs. She Leads Bharat: Udyam, alongside our partners—Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, 360 ONE Foundation, SAP India, and Beyond Capital Ventures—extends an invitation to domestic and international donors who share our vision of building agency, confidence, and capacity among rural women entrepreneurs to earn elevated and diversified incomes. If you are interested in being part of innovative financing solutions like returnable grants and blended finance, we warmly welcome you to join the She Leads Bharat movement. Tagging Our Partners & Guests: Ajaita S. Murali Nair Dimpy Dave Ravpreet Ganesh Priya T. ANJANI KUMAR SINGH Poulami Bhattacharyya  Anupriya Das Singh Amrita Sarker Ruchi Ramann Kathryn Moore #SheLeadsBharat #WomenEmpowerment #BlendedFinance #GenderLensInvesting #SankalpForum2024 #FrontierMarkets #UnlockingCapital #CollaborativeImpact

"Women are at the heart of impact and change, and it truly takes a village. Ajaita S., Founder & CEO of Frontier Markets, has just set the stage with her powerful introduction in the She Leads Bharat – Catalyzing Gender Lens Investing for a Prosperous India session happening at the #SankalpBharat2024 Pramit Banerjee

At Zonful Energy , we #strongly believe our #business thrives when our #people and #communities succeed. This is why it is so #important that our #social #investment #strategy focuses on the key themes that are relevant to the #rural #communities where we operate. Alliance for Rural Electrification Modern Cooking Facility for Africa Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) LEO Impact Fund EEP Africa Corey Abrams Lucie Klarsfeld McGrath Jessica Utichi Global Distributors Collective (GDC) Practical Action CARE Zimbabwe SNV GOGLA Powertrust Amrit Mohan Sattel Energy Zim Frontier Markets Whitney Stewart Osagie Aimiuwu, Ph.D. Bopinc FBC Holdings Limited Roald Klumpenaar Gerwin Jansen SELCO Foundation

🚀 Successful rural field showcase of She Leads Bharat: Udyam in Varanasi! We are overjoyed to share the incredible experiences from our rural field visit in Varanasi during the first-ever showcase of She Leads Bharat: Udyam at the Sankalp Forum 2024 on 25th November. The rural field visit brought together over 25 gender focussed donors and investors including Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, Beyond Capital Ventures, 360 ONE Foundation, SAP India, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lodha Unnati, Bertelsmann Stiftung, Godrej, Yunus Social Business and others. The guests interacted with over 25 rural women businesses and super sahelis of the She Leads Bharat: Udyam initiative who have successfully elevated their incomes through the Meri Saheli App and are on the path to unlocking formal finance through our innovative returnable grant model. Some of the reactions were: "The most touching and powerful moment for me was to see the deep bond that Ajaita shares with each woman beneficiary. She deeply cares for them and the energy she pours into every interaction inspires smiles, pride, and confidence among all the beneficiaries. How Frontier Market’s model elevates incomes of women and has a multiplier effect on the development outcomes for their children and families was evident from the exchange - their efforts are truly making deep and sustainable impact." — Kathryn Moore, Lodha Unnati. "The unwavering smiles and confidence of every woman beneficiary are the most powerful evidence and testimony of the initiative's impact. Kudos to Frontier Markets for the remarkable work they are doing." — ANJANI KUMAR SINGH, Gates Foundation I’m inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit and clarity of vision demonstrated by these rural women entrepreneurs. As we provide these rural women with returnable grants, we are excited to empower them to elevate income and establish a credit footprint that will open doors to formal finance.” — Saumya Lashkari, 360 ONE Foundation “Inspiring to hear the women businesses and super sahelis talk in such a confident and self-assured way. It shows how much impact your initiative has in their lives. I came back promising myself to make my foundation do something about it!”— Murali Nair, Bertelsmann Stiftung Stay tuned to learn more about the exclusive fireside chat and roundtable on unlocking blended finance for women's economic empowerment that happened the next day with 30+ donors and investors. Murali Nair Dimpy Dave Ravpreet Ganesh Pooja Monga Priya T. Sagarika Bose Poulami Bhattacharyya  Anupriya Singh Amrita Sarker Ruchi Ramann Leena Datwani Shell Foundation Elevar Equity Ajaita S. Gautam Malik Mehdi Rizvi Akshita Ladda Maneesha Chadha Sourabh Anand Krishna Thacker Amrit Mohan Viplav Singh Aravind Uppala (Hiring for Node.js, Data Engineers, UI/UX) #SheLeadsBharat #WomenEmpowerment #MeriSaheliApp #DigitalInclusion #GenderLensInvesting #SankalpForum2024 #FrontierMarkets #UnlockingCapital #BlendedFinance

We are thrilled to share that Frontier Markets and Frontier Innovations Foundation are partnering with Intellecap to host the 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐁𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭: 𝐔𝐝𝐲𝐚𝐦 event at the upcoming Sankalp Forum on 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 25𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 26𝐭𝐡 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. 𝘖𝘯 𝘋𝘢𝘺 1, we’re inviting 25 gender-focused donors and investors on an immersive field visit to meet inspiring rural women who have elevated and diversified their incomes through the 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐁𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭: 𝐔𝐝𝐲𝐚𝐦 initiative. This is a unique opportunity to hear firsthand success stories and witness the transformative impact of empowering women entrepreneurs at the grassroots level. 𝘖𝘯 𝘋𝘢𝘺 2, we'll host an engaging fireside chat featuring our esteemed investors and donors, including Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, 360 ONE 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, SAP, Beyond Capital Ventures, and others. Joining us as panelists will be industry leaders such as Leena Datwani from Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, Saumya Lashkari from 360 ONE Foundation, Sagarika Bose from SAP India and Pooja Monga from Beyond Capital Ventures. Over 30 donors and investors will attend this session dedicated to advancing women's economic empowerment. We are also excited to welcome future potential partners like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, nasscom foundation , Microsave Consulting (MSC) , Lodha Group, 𝐆𝐨𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐣, and others who share a similar vision and will be participating in these events during 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐚𝐥𝐩. Join Us at the Sankalp Forum! We invite partners, donors, and investors passionate about women's economic empowerment to register and join us at the Sankalp Forum. Be part of this exclusive event to connect, collaborate, and contribute to empowering over 1 million rural women entrepreneurs by 2030. 👉 Register here: https://bit.ly/3AIZbXZ Let's come together to drive inclusive economic growth and create a future where women entrepreneurs have the resources, support, and opportunities they need to thrive. #SheLeadsBharat #WomenEmpowerment #GenderLensInvesting #SankalpForum2024 #FrontierMarkets #Intellecap Ajaita S.

At #IndiaDayAtUNGA in New York, the panel "Power of Women-Led Development: Femme Forward for the Future" brought together leaders like Archna Vyas, Pritha Venkatachalam, Ajaita S., Jessica Posner Odede, and Sarah H. The discussion underscored the need to equip women with leadership skills through investments in education, technical training, and mentorship. Women must be viewed as agents of change, with innovative tech solutions addressing barriers such as limited access to education and economic opportunities. Recognising women as key players in microfinance and digital banking is vital to driving sustainable, inclusive development. Observer Research Foundation | United Nations in India #IndiaDayAtUNGA, #RFUNGA2024 #GlobalSouthStory #SummitOfFuture

🎥 Watch highlights from our Global Goals Summit 2024 Hybrid Workshop, hosted with Barclays yesterday. We thank these speakers for their great insights:     Neliswa Hare Ajaita S. Vijayaraghavan Palat  Frances Cabrera Wendy Smith The conversation continues today, to join: 👉 https://lnkd.in/ee6BfA-i #BFP_UNGA #BFP_Live

We’re excited to announce that Frontier Markers and TERI - The Energy and Resources Institute are joining hands to launch She Leads Bharat: E-Aahaar – A Pioneering Gender and Climate Initiative to take e-kitchens to the last mile! 🌍 This groundbreaking initiative will enable the adoption of clean and climate-friendly e-cooking solutions in e-kitchens at the last mile in remote villages, empowering rural women entrepreneurs and driving both gender equality and climate action. 🌱👩🌾 Over 800 million rural households in India still rely on traditional cooking fuels like wood, coal, and dung which not only harms the environment but disproportionately affect women, leading to severe health risks due to indoor air pollution. 🚶♀️ Through this initiative, we aim to transform rural cooking practices through sustainable innovation while empowering women entrepreneurs. 🌍💡 The success of #SheLeadsBharat: Udyam has paved the way for She Leads Bharat: E-Aahaar, focusing on bringing clean, climate-friendly solutions to rural households as part of the She Leads Bharat: Climate Gender Initiative. This pilot demonstration is just the beginning! 🚀 Over the next two years, we aim to scale this model to reach 500,000 rural households and ultimately, 5 million by 2030. This unique project aims to: 💡 Reduce emissions and improve health outcomes by setting up e-kitchens and experience centers in rural villages that will introduce innovative sustainable e-cooking solutions to 25,000 rural customers in rural villages of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. 💪 Empower 500 Digital Super Saheli Malls and 100 Frontier Markets Sahelis to promote, sell, and scale e-kitchen products in their communities, creating new income opportunities and economic independence. 🔋 Build a self-sustaining ecosystem where rural women can become agents of change, facilitating access to clean energy and life-enhancing products in underserved areas. 🌟 We’re calling on partners, funders, and organizations passionate about gender equality, clean energy, and climate action to join us in this visionary initiative. Together, we can empower rural women, reduce climate risks, and create lasting change for rural India. 📩 Want to be part of this transformation? Let’s connect and make a meaningful impact! #EmpowerWomen #ClimateAction #CleanCooking #Sustainability #ImpactInvestment #RuralDevelopment #GenderEquality #SheLeadsBharat #Aahar Frontier Markets, TERI - The Energy and Resources Institute, Mastercard, Acumen, Schneider Electric, IKEA, Shell Foundation Jayanta mitra, Er. Alekhya Datta, Mehdi Rizvi, Apoorva Singh, Ajaita S., Shirish Garud, Anurag Gangwar, Gautam Malik, Amrit Mohan

🚀 Bridging the Last-Mile Gap: Empowering Rural Women and Communities with the #SheLeadsImpactFund 🚀 Did you know that over 3.7 billion people worldwide live on less than $6.85/day, with most residing in underserved rural areas across Asia and Africa? These communities face extreme challenges in accessing basic goods and services like clean water, electricity, healthcare, and financial services. These communities pay higher prices for lower-quality products simply because they lack the distribution networks urban areas benefit from. Further, women in these areas rarely have access to formal jobs, and cultural norms give them fewer opportunities to move to urban areas. As a result, they are disproportionately affected by this access gap. 💡That’s why we’re excited to launch the #SheLeadsImpactFund (SLIF)—an initiative co-led by Frontier Innovations Foundation (FIF) and Hystra to transform last-mile distribution networks. #SLIF aims to enable rural areas to access beneficial goods and services, while empowering local women as agents of change! 💪 💥 The rural market potential is HUGE! In India alone, the rural market for fast-moving consumer goods hit $38.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $220 billion by 2027. But while products like soft drinks and soaps find their way into remote villages, innovative and life-changing solutions—like clean energy, healthcare, and financial services—remain out of reach due to distribution and trust challenges. 👩🌾 Women are particularly impacted. They’re often the main decision-makers for household spending but have less access to the labor market, earning 24% less than their male counterparts in LMICs. They are often also overlooked as both consumers and economic drivers: the reality is that closing the gender gap could boost GDP by nearly 8% in emerging markets! 📈 🔑 SLIF will address these challenges by: ✅ Supporting 3 last-mile distributors with tech, funding, and training over 3 years. ✅ Helping them increase annual sales by $10M+ each. ✅ Doubling the income of 9,000+ local agents, with a focus on empowering women. ✅ Attracting $6M+ in additional investments for these ventures to scale their efforts. 💡 The future of rural communities—and the women within them—depends on better access to essential goods, services, and economic opportunities. Let’s make it happen. We’re seeking partners, funders and connectors who share this vision to help us expand our reach. 📩 Want to help us make a lasting impact? Let’s connect! #EmpowerWomen #LastMileDistribution #SocialImpact #Sustainability #ImpactInvestment #RuralDevelopment #GenderEquality #SheLeadsImpact Ajaita S. Lucie Klarsfeld McGrath Mehdi Rizvi Amrit Mohan Gautam Malik Beyond Capital Ventures Acumen Joana Furquim Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth