IMPACTASSETS 50™
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
ImpactAssets 50
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
Elevar Equity
Education
Small/Medium Business Development
Microfinance, low-income financial services & micro-insuranceFirm Overview
Elevar Equity fuels the economic resilience and vibrancy of underserved customers and low income communities by investing early growth capital in entrepreneurs building at the intersection of inclusivity, affordability and massive scale. Led by an entrepreneurial emerging markets team passionate about addressing issues of access and inequity, Elevar invests in businesses that demonstrate a direct correlation between high impact and returns. So far in its 15-year journey, the Elevar Method of investing has democratized essential products and services for over 50 million households and catalyzed billions of dollars of capital into 45 companies across India and Latin America. Elevar is actively involved in all phases of company creation and manages the current active funds: Elevar Equity III LP (2014), Elevar Equity IV LP (2018), Elevar India V (2021) with portfolio companies operating in India and across Latin America.
Years of Operation: 10 years or more
% of Capital from Top 3 Investors: Less than 25%
Elevar Equity fuels the economic resilience and vibrancy of underserved customers and low-income communities by investing early growth capital in entrepreneurs building at the intersection of inclusivity, affordability and massive scale.
The Elevar Method, or e.M, is the outcome of 15 years of building ‘equity for equity’. Our investment thesis focuses on four aspects: underserved customers, business models that deliver products and services affordably, entrepreneurs with the ambition and ability to build businesses that address barriers of access and inequity, and scale. We view marginalized communities as large sources of untapped economic and social value and develop our investment themes around specific products or services that can link underserved customers to global networks (such as financial, communication, information and market systems), prioritizing opportunities based on the community’s expressed needs for specific essential products or services. Elevar invests in thematic areas that are essential products and services focused (financial inclusion, MSME & market linkages, education & employability, agri supply chains).
The core team within Elevar has been investing for over 15 years with the same strategic focus on underserved and low-income communities. This history provides a distinct advantage over our peers, as we have been the pioneering leader at the forefront of many product developments, unique business models and laying the foundation of ecosystems to serve this community more effectively. The investment team resides in the emerging markets where we invest, and has been groomed to develop a razor sharp focus and deep understanding of our customer’s needs and aspirations. We build distinct alignment across all our stakeholders and know how to work well with entrepreneurs to build companies that are and remain customer-centric. Lastly, in our history, we have been the founding investor in 18 of our 42 investments and the first institutional investor in 37 of our 42 companies.
Investment Example
The lack of access to reasonable quality education in K-12 continues to impact the development of India’s working population, leading to a massive inequity in demand and supply of skilled labor. LEAD’s mission is to make quality education accessible and affordable to children in underserved communities. LEAD’s ‘school-in-a-box’ solution for affordable private schools covers various aspects of school management and aims to empower rather than replace the key stakeholders like teachers and school owners, in delivering quality education. The company’s SaaS platform embedded within its offerings is continuously measuring the impacts to children as well as measuring the teacher’s capabilities. Since its inception, LEAD has served over 1.4 Mn students and affordable private schools (those charging < $500 per student per annum) are 95% of its customer base.
Leadership and Team
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Sandeep Farias – Co-Founder and Managing Partner More Info
Sandeep Farias leads Elevar globally and is responsible for the firm’s strategy and organizational development, while engaging with entrepreneurs in India and Latin America to think through inflection points in their entrepreneurial journeys. Sandeep has close to 25 years of work experience in diverse areas such as emerging markets investing, governance and regulation, organizational design, transactions and structuring, and corporate law. He founded Elevar in 2008, being passionately driven by working with early stage companies that foster economic development for low income communities; particularly in financial services including MSME finance and microfinance (where he played a leadership role in the sector’s transformation over a decade from the non-profit space to formal banking), affordable education, healthcare and agricultural services. |
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Johanna Posada – Co-Founder and Managing Partner More Info
Johanna co-founded Elevar in 2008 with the view that “The efficient allocation of capital into the hands of productive communities in developing countries creates wealth and a foundation for prosperity. We accomplish this by maintaining an investment discipline and backing entrepreneurs who know best how to serve and empower their clients. We can positively impact people’s lives by promoting scalable, market based solutions that address their needs.” Johanna has over 17 years of emerging markets investing experience, corporate finance, microfinance and economics. She has partnered with and invested in companies which are today some of the biggest providers of services to disconnected communities in India and Latin America. |
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Jyotsna Krishnan – Managing Partner More Info
Jyotsna is Managing Partner at Elevar and a founding team member at Enmasse. She leads the firm’s investing strategy and priorities in India, along with driving the overall fund performance globally. While building Elevar’s investing practice in India, she has closely partnered with entrepreneurs building transformational business models in sectors such as agriculture, MSME services, affordable education and quality healthcare. |
Financial Performance
Impact Performance
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Percentage of Total Assets Under
Management that are Impact Investments: |
100%
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Elevar explicitly targets underserved customers and low income communities. These segments often lack access to mainstream markets, products and services. The underserved, low-income individuals in these communities are typically excluded from wage-earning employment opportunities that formal economies traditionally offer. They also live and work in the informal economy, not by choice but by necessity, resulting in curtailed growth due to a lack of resources. In economic terms, they are both households that consume and self-employed firms, creating an environment where consumption and production decisions are intertwined. This customer has purchasing power (though limited), is often self-employed and is acutely aware of the disparities that exist in their communities, limiting their economic opportunities. This lack of connection, whether caused by oversight, discrimination, poverty or other obstacles, represents a highly inefficient condition that can be addressed by entrepreneurial, scalable, customer-focused business models.
Elevar believes that effective management of ESG issues across the lifecycle of our investments is important. As an early growth capital provider, it is vital to the long term sustainability of our companies to begin factoring in ESG considerations in a thoughtful, intentional and stage appropriate manner. As an early stage investor, and typically the first institutional investor in our portfolio companies, the intentionality of the entrepreneurs with respect to an impact journey is an important aspect of our underwriting process - including in this context, the recognition of the importance of ESG practices by the founders. We documented this approach in our investment and portfolio management processes - for example, introducing a checklist that specifically helps identify ESG risks and opportunities, identifies gaps and develops action plans. This checklist will then be used to work with management teams in the context of our stage based approach.
Impact Tracking and Monitoring
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