6 September 2024: She Leads Bharat: Udyam, an initiative anchored by Frontier Innovations Foundation, Frontier Markets, and Saral Jeevan India Foundation and supported by Mastercard and Airtel Payments Bank, was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2023 as a coalition to bring together pioneers, innovators, and leaders committed to advancing women’s empowerment. The initiative is excited to announce a strategic partnership with 360 ONE Foundation, a catalytic partner that understands the need for transformative impact at scale.
The She Leads Bharat coalition was created with the vision to move beyond traditional capacity building, livelihood training, and market linkages to demonstrate a scalable model of women’s entrepreneurship. The partnership with 360 ONE Foundation embodies this vision, providing catalytic grant capital that unlocks new pathways to create impact and value on a large scale.
She Leads Bharat Udyam, supported by Mastercard, laid the critical foundation for small women-owned businesses, guiding them through essential stages of identification, capacity building, and digitalization and introducing them to new income opportunities, which is akin to their foundational education.
Through this partnership, Frontier Markets and 360 ONE Foundation have taken the leadership to empower 2,000 new to credit small women-owned businesses in rural villages of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh through catalytic capital in the form of returnable grants, which are zero interest and zero collateral loans with only a moral obligation to pay back to Saral Jeevan India Foundation, a strategic implementation partner of Frontier Markets, along with capacity building, handholding, and market linkage support across two cycles. The project aims to elevate these women’s monthly incomes and eventually unlock additional critical formal capital to sustain and scale their businesses by establishing their creditworthiness through transaction and repayment data using the Frontier Markets’ Meri Saheli App.
Ajaita Shah, Founder and CEO of Frontier Markets, expressed her enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “Frontier Markets is excited to partner with 360 ONE Foundation, who is a pioneer in innovative and blended finance, in launching one of its kind initiative to unlock finance for new to credit small women businesses in rural villages using returnable grant and Frontier Markets Meri Saheli App technology. With this collaboration, we are not just enabling financial inclusion for small women businesses; we are also curating a powerful and scalable ecosystem demonstration for gender empowerment and sustainable business growth. Our commitment is to unlock the full potential of these women, uplift their communities, and integrate them into the formal credit system, thus enabling their entrepreneurial spirit.”
Saumya Lashkari, Director and Board Member of 360 ONE Foundation, echoed this excitement, stating, “At 360 ONE, we are committed to maximizing both financial and social returns. Our 360 ONE Foundation has re-imagined traditional grant-giving and pioneered a more catalytic approach powered by blended finance and outcomes-based financing. This partnership with Frontier Markets is a groundbreaking initiative that delivers exponential impact and represents a significant step forward in our shared goal of advancing financial inclusion and empowering underserved communities.”