Dear Upaya Community,
The recent worldwide COVID-19 outbreak is a reminder that rare and unexpected emergencies have the potential to disrupt our professional and personal routines. Upaya provides investment and consulting support to early-stage businesses aimed at creating jobs for the poorest of the poor. Our portfolio of 21 businesses have cumulatively created over 15,000 jobs for the poor in India. During this period of heightened uncertainty, Upaya is taking extra measures to ensure the health and safety of those in our extended community so that we are prepared to help the most vulnerable.
In addition to the potential spread of the virus itself, we anticipate that significant disruption could result from market volatility, supply chain shocks, and other economic events. We are in regular touch with our investee companies to ensure they are aware of local developments and have a risk mitigation strategy in place. We are strongly encouraging them to develop contingency plans to deal with slower business cycles and support jobholders who may require additional assistance. We have delayed the launch of our next accelerator program by two months in hopes that by May, travel within India will feel safe again.
For our own staff, we have implemented a work-from-home policy – subject to directives from local health authorities in Seattle and Bangalore. We are curbing business travel to and from affected areas, again subject to local health guidelines.
We are hopeful and optimistic that COVID-19 will retreat quickly in the coming weeks and that we will spring back to business as usual. In the meantime, we are committed to seeing our community safely through these extraordinary circumstances.
4/9/20 UPDATE: Please read our latest post to learn about Upaya’s three-wave COVID-19 response strategy.
