Dignified Jobs Accelerator

THE DIGNIFIED JOBS ACCELERATOR 2023

With Upaya and YSB

With dignified and quality jobs, people living in extreme poverty are able to break out of the cycle of poverty and help stabilize the economy. Through this program, we support social businesses that are building the jobs economy in an inclusive and equitable manner.

The last two years have provided an impetus for entrepreneurs to rethink ‘business as usual’. This meant reconfiguring business models to survive and sustain in extremes. It meant adopting models that operate with a dual purpose of societal well-being and financial sustainability.

The program will focus on building a strong foundation for impactful businesses to grow and thrive with real-world insights on investment readiness. It is a systematic and logical scale-up approach over six months.

MEET THE 2023 COHORT

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Tribal Hermit is a social impact venture working with Dhokra craft artisans from Kondagaon, Bastar, and Raigarh districts of Chhattisgarh.

Raheja Solar provides solar dryers for farmers that enable them to derive greater value from the produce which otherwise goes waste or is sold at very low prices.

Mowo Fleet is redefining the multi modal urban mobility landscape by building fleet services by women.

Moneybin Resources collects recyclable waste from households and profitably sells it to recycling factories by employing unskilled women labourers.

Kraftinn is a vertically integrated home decor company addressing the issue of sustainability for conscious customers.

Karghewale incubates weaver-entrepreneurs by offering them a bouquet of services such as design and production training, cataloging digital market linkages, and business support services.

Gangpur Ventures is creating a livelihood opportunity for tribal communities in Odisha and Jharkhand by addressing the acute shortage of fodder in the dairy farming industry.

Farmology is a technology-enabled integrated crop advisory solution that assists farmers to diagnose and treat crop issues.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Upaya Social Ventures is joining forces with Yunus Social Business to support early-stage entrepreneurs to build business and investment readiness capacity. The program takes place over six months and includes four immersive modules designed to equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and connections to grow their businesses. Participants will receive technical training and one-on-one consulting support from the experienced teams of Upaya and YSB. The participating entrepreneurs also meet and network with industry experts, investors, and peer entrepreneurs through structured workshops and Masterclasses.

In addition to the program support, Upaya will select up to three businesses for USD 50,000 investment. Yunus Social Business Fund Bengaluru will select up to two businesses for potential debt investment of up to USD 100,000.

Program Components

Program Benefits

Taking place over the course of six months, the program will include four immersive modules designed to equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and connections to grow your businesses.
Upaya and YSB’s experienced teams, along with mentors will provide customised support to refine your business model, build your strategy, track your business growth and create a fundraising roadmap.
Strengthen impact-first thinking through focused capacity building around Impact management and measurement
Participants meet and network with investors, industry experts and peer entrepreneurs.
Participants will have the opportunity to pitch their businesses to Upaya and other investors for funding.
Opportunity for up to three businesses to receive Upaya investment of USD 50,000 investment. In addition, YSB will also screen participating businesses for a debt investment of up to USD 100,000.

is your company a fit?

We seek applications from social businesses that align with our impact theme of job creation and livelihood opportunities for the extreme poor. In addition, we are conscious of creating an enabling ecosystem for women entrepreneurs and encourage women-led businesses to apply.

We welcome applications from companies in all sectors, including, but not limited to:

Food & Agriculture
Artisan Economy
Skilling & Employability
Rural Manufacturing
Circular Economy / Green Jobs / Climate Action

Companies will be invited to join the Accelerator Program based on the following selection criteria:

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EARLY-STAGE

Your enterprise is less than five years old but generating revenue, showing traction in sales, and growing fast.

FOR-PROFIT

Your company must be registered as a for-profit entity.

IMPACT FOCUS

Your business is focused on creating sustainable jobs and providing substantial income increase for people living in extreme poverty.

SCALABILITY

Your venture is tackling a big, important problem and has the capacity and ambition to scale operations and expand to create 1,000 jobs in seven years.

FUNDS RAISED

You have raised less than USD 75,000 of institutional funding, but are looking to raise funds in the eight to 12 months.

Interested in joining the Dignified Jobs Accelerator?

Submit this interest form to receive updates on the next application cycle.

Keep me in the loop!

TESTIMONIALS

"Running a business whilst creating impact comes with its own set of perils. But this program has been extremely helpful in understanding and identifying all the challenges and finding solutions for them."

-Shrimayee, Aval, 2020 Cohort

“This has been an incredible learning experience for me. Loved Upaya's personalised and detail-oriented approach towards its cohort members. Today, I am more confident about my organisation’s financial model and strategy and can say that we are Investor Ready due to this program.”

- Sonali, Nugu Handmade, 2019 Cohort

“It was one of the most value-adding programs! We were guided on topics most relevant to the business and then got enough space and time to reflect and implement. The diligent follow-up made a world of difference! All of us in the cohort can actually work together on so many things in the future because we are all working towards creating impact where it’s needed the most.”

Varun, THOA, 2020 Cohort

"Upaya's accelerator taught us how to get our business processes and financial modeling in place, and how to begin preparing for the coming days with leadership skills and HR recruitment."

-Meenakshi, Helper4U, 2017 Cohort

“A never to miss opportunity. An absolute honor. Upaya is like family now.”

- Manan, YouCare, 2019 Cohort

"Everything, from structural organization and financial management, to team creation and understanding how others perceive your business, has been well taken care of at Upaya."

-Mansi, UpSkill, 2017 Cohort

"I am confident that with the help of the program, we together will be able to build a scalable for-profit enterprise along with impacting thousands at the bottom of pyramid."

- Saral, The Shoe Men, 2017 Cohort

Featured Cohort Spotlights

Meet some of our past cohort entrepreneurs!

Blog

The Tribal Hermit: Taking Dhokra Craft to the World

The Tribal Hermit is a social impact venture that works closely with 130+ Dhokra craft artisans from Kondagaon, Bastar, and Raigarh districts of Chhattisgarh to design, create, and sell their products.

Karghewale: Transforming Weavers into Entrepreneurs

Check out our conversation with the founders Karghewale about their goal to support wage-weavers as they transition to weaver-entrepreneurs, in addition to building agency and ability in artisans.

Gangpur Ventures: Tackling the Fodder Deficit of Eastern India

Bimal Lakra founded Gangpur Ventures in Rourkela, Odisha to create livelihood opportunities for tribal communities by addressing the acute shortage of fodder in the dairy farming industry.

MoneyBin: Adding Value to Waste

MoneyBin Resources is a dry waste management company addressing the issue of improper waste segregation by employing unskilled women laborers to collect and segregate it into multiple categories and selling it to recycling factories.

Raheja Solar: A Solar-Powered Solution to Food Waste

In 2018, Varun Raheja founded Raheja Solar Food Processing Pvt. Ltd. in Indore, Madhya Pradesh with the aim of helping Indian farmers increase the shelf life of their produce, thereby allowing them to derive greater value from it. Raheja Solar provides farmers with an affordable and foldable solar dryer that can be installed even in the remotest of farms. The dryers dehydrate produce in a way that preserves its color, taste, fragrance, and nutrients.

Farmology: Creating Farmers of the Future

Farmology is an app-based platform which assists farmers by providing integrated crop advisory in real time. They manufacture agri inputs and also partner with other agri input companies to provide farmers with access to seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides — all of which is available on the Farmology app.

KraftInn: Meeting Consumer Demand for Sustainably-Made Products from Assam

In 2015, Parikshit Borkotoky left his corporate career in financial services and moved back to the rural Assam community of Jorhat to start Kraftinn to create jobs for semi-skilled artisans in his hometown.

MOWO Fleet: Putting Women On Wheels

With an aim to create livelihood opportunities for women by building a women-serviced mobility fleet, today Jai Bharathi is redefining urban mobility in India through her startup, MOWO Fleet, which she founded in Hyderabad in 2019.

YellowBag: Building a Better Future, One Bag at a Time

YellowBag is a family run business that focuses on sustainability and livelihoods by working with women to make cloth bags as an alternative to plastic bags. Gowri RG and Krishnan Subramanian were inspired to find a way to make a difference after they became parents. It was impossible for them to ignore the impact something as small as a plastic bag might have on their child's future.

reThela: Helping Street Vendors Get Organized

Sunil Kumar is the founder of reThela, a social venture that aims to build an organized retail market infrastructure for fragmented and unorganized street vendors. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Sunil worked with Uniliever selling chocolates on the streets of Mumbai. Now he is helping the fragmented street vendor market get organized.

Past Program Facilitators

We are honored to welcome some of the industry’s most notable experts to speak and facilitate sessions with our cohorts.

Past Facilitators

Aiswarya Ravi

Kinara Capital

Amritha Mani

Aadya Social Capital

Amrut Joshi

GameChanger Law Advisors

Aparna Ananthan

Caspian Debt

Deeksha Gehlot Kyal

LexIngenious

Prashant Mandke

Hesa Enterprise

Richa Natarajan

Unitus Capital

Sandeep Farias

Elevar Equity

Shekar Prabhakar

Hasiru Dala Innovations

Srikanth Sridharan

Stanford Seed

Srinivas Ramanujam

Villgro

Tamanna Gupta

Umanshi Marketing

Tanya Bhattacharya

StoryWallahs

Vinay Kothari

GoDesi

Outreach Partners

We are pleased to partner with these prestigious organizations in seeking entrepreneurs to join our 2023 cohort.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Upaya Social Ventures is fighting extreme poverty through dignified jobs. Founded in 2011, Upaya provides investment and consulting support to early-stage businesses aimed at creating jobs for the poorest of the poor. Upaya’s continually growing portfolio of impact investments has created nearly 27,000 lasting, dignified jobs. Endorsed by ImpactMatters as a high-impact, cost-effective nonprofit, Upaya’s teams in Seattle and Bangalore are committed to a goal of helping entrepreneurs create jobs for 50,000 people in India by 2025. To support its mission, Upaya runs an annual Accelerator Program in India focused on investment readiness for early-stage businesses creating jobs and livelihoods to lift people out of extreme poverty.

Yunus Social Business (YSB) is a social business fund and corporate social innovator, harnessing the power of business to end poverty and the climate crisis. Co-founded in 2011 by Peace Nobel Laureate Prof. Yunus, YSB Funds finances and grows social businesses in East Africa, Latin America & India, while Yunus Corporate Innovation transforms corporations into a force for good. To date, social businesses in YSB’s portfolio have impacted the lives of 17.8 million people and provided higher incomes to 1.3 million. Investment Readiness Programmes form part of YSB’s wider ambition to contribute to building the ecosystem in the geographies in which YSB is active.

+ Will funding be available to all selected enterprises?

Funding is not included as part of the accelerator program. However, at the end of the program, Upaya will select up to 3 companies for investment. In addition, YSB will also screen participating businesses for a debt investment of up to USD 100,000.

+ What is extreme poverty?

The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on under USD $1.90 per day. We partner with companies creating jobs that are targeted at this extremely poor population. While extreme poverty looks different around the country and the world, what people living in these conditions have in common is their dire economic vulnerability.

Contact Us

Rachna Chandrashekhar
Manager, Accelerator & Impact Management
Upaya Social Ventures
rchandrashekhar@upayasv.org

Aditi Das
Program Associate
Upaya Social Ventures
adas@upayasv.org

Manasi Parvatikar
India Project Manager
Yunus Social Business
manasi.parvatikar@yunussb.com