Frontier Markets and 360 ONE Foundation have announced a strategic partnership to support “New to Credit” small women-owned businesses in rural villages through the “She Leads Bharat: Udyam” initiative. This collaboration introduces a pioneering model combining blended finance and catalytic capital to elevate these businesses.
Launched at the World Economic Forum in January 2023, She Leads Bharat: Udyam aims to move beyond traditional capacity building by showcasing scalable women entrepreneurship models. The new partnership with 360 ONE Foundation enhances this vision by offering returnable grants—zero-interest, zero-collateral loans with a moral repayment obligation—to assist these businesses in building creditworthiness and accessing formal finance.
The initiative will focus on 2,000 small women-owned enterprises in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, leveraging Frontier Markets’ Meri Saheli App to track transaction and repayment data. This approach aims to boost incomes and unlock additional capital while creating a sustainable, scalable model for financial inclusion and business growth.
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 entrepreneurship spirits.”
The project is unique from other enterprise development and livelihood programs as it not only builds the entrepreneurial capacity of women and connects them with market partners to earn elevated incomes, but also delivers a powerful pathway for them to access formal finance to scale their businesses. The project is also catalytic, that is, the funds that are returned to Saral Jeevan India Foundation will be rotated to the next cohorts of small women businesses. A portion of the returned funds will be used to create a first loss default guarantee, which will unlock additional capital at 3-5x financial leverage from other financing partners, creating a pipeline of external funds for small women businesses for further growth.
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.”
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