Meet The Investors
STARTHEALTH
PROGRAM BY
Unitus Seed Fund is a seed-stage venture investment fund based in Bangalore and Seattle that invests in startups innovating for the masses in India. Unitus helps startups “prepare for growth” via seed funding, strategic & operating support, providing critical connections, and securing growth capital.
StartHealth is an innovative program launched by Unitus Seed Fund, Pfizer Inc., PATH, Manipal Hospitals and Narayana Health to provide up to INR 10 crore (US$1.6M) in grants and investments to very early-stage startups seeking to enhance access to affordable technology-driven healthcare products and services for the low-income masses in India. The program offers for-profit healthcare startups non-dilutive capital, hands-on support, access to expert advisors, medical facilities, and seed venture capital, enabling them to more efficiently and effectively complete development and scale their operations in India.
With StartHealth, each emerging healthcare startup selected can take advantage of the funding, expertise and assets of the sponsoring parties, including the following:
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Up to 50L (US$85K) of non-dilutive capital to fund immediate pre-seed business progress for 6 to 12 months
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Hands-on support from PATH, Manipal Hospitals and Narayana’s staff, drawing from a pool of hundreds of healthcare and health industry experts
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Access to expert networks of Pfizer, PATH, Manipal Hospitals, Narayana and Unitus, in India and globally
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Access to facilities of Manipal Hospitals and Narayana for pilots and market testing
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Average Rs. 1 crore (US$165K) of seed venture capital and support from Unitus Seed Fund and its investing partners to prepare for growth and then to raise scale-up capital
Intellecap is a pioneer in providing innovative business solutions that help build and scale profitable and sustainable enterprises dedicated to social and environmental change. Our unique positioning at the intersection of social and commercial business sectors allows us to attract and nurture intellectual capital that combines the business training of the commercial world with the passion and commitment of the social world to shape distinctive solutions.
Since 2002, Intellecap has been committed to economic and social development through market-based solutions that help build and scale innovative businesses for social change. It is one of the most reputed consulting firms in the development sector that provides on-the-ground business consulting and thought leadership to base-of-the-pyramid initiatives. The company’s core business is firmly planted in the base-of-the-pyramid initiatives across sectors such as healthcare, water and sanitation, digital financial services, agriculture, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), off-grid clean energy, education, and social enterprises.
Intellecap has established deep knowledge of base of the pyramid markets and emerging markets venture scale-up strategies. We understand that developing and scaling a social innovation is difficult, and the success to scale business lies in understanding the real problems, identifying bottlenecks, sharply defining use cases, to high impact technologies and innovative solutions approach that works.
Our support is structured along the continuum of an innovator's journey focusing on bringing innovative solutions that can positively impact the lives of low-income and underserved communities across the developing world. We then design different solution approaches in collaboration with a powerful network of partners, and test these in real-world “micro-labs” with real customers, create a go-to-market strategy (entry strategy, product pricing, marketing and distribution) and facilitate partnerships with interest and capabilities in scaling up solutions that work.
Menterra Social Impact Fund is an impact investment fund that invests in early-stage social enterprises working in the sectors of education, health, and agriculture.
The Fund invests up to Rs. 4 Cr (INR 0.5 million) largely around 2 themes in for-profit enterprises:
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Products - preferably in healthcare, agriculture and energy with focus on low-income segments
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Education (K-12 bias) and skill training companies with focus on improving learning outcomes, job opportunities and earning potential for urban low-income segment
In addition to the above 2 themes, and more importantly, social impact for lower-strata of the society is must and needs to be direct, tangible and integral to the business model and philosophy of the core team for us to fund or support.
Menterra collaborates closely with social enterprise incubator Villgro to support and fund for-profit social enterprises operating in India.
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