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Upaya Social Ventures

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In 2011, Sachi Shenoy, Sriram Gutta, and Steve Schwartz founded Upaya Social Ventures (USV) to help entrepreneurs establish businesses that provide employment opportunities for people experiencing poverty. Their vision is to help break the cycle of poverty by enabling the poorest individuals to earn a reliable living. USV supports entrepreneurs in marginalised communities by offering them early-stage funding through recoverable grants, an accelerator program, and extensive advisory support.

Method

Upaya works to achieve its impact through three core activities: 

1. Accelerator programme: Upaya runs an accelerator programme in partnership with Yunus Social Business to prepare the businesses they finance for investment. The six-month programme includes investment readiness training, customised support, peer learning, and investor connections. Companies from all sectors are eligible but must be early-stage, for-profit, impact-focused, scalable, and have raised below a certain threshold in institutional funding. 

2. Partnering: After completing the accelerator programme, a company potentially receiving investment from Upaya also receives significant support, as Upaya's team partners with the company to ensure its success. 

3. Recycling Philanthropy: Upaya has created a pool of recoverable grants to provide appropriate capital for supported businesses, allowing them to scale and sustain their beneficiaries. This pool enables Upaya to invest in a diverse portfolio of impact-driven companies, creating jobs for people in extreme poverty. Funders may recover the philanthropic funding with a potential positive return, which they can also re-grant back to Upaya.

Wilstar Support

Wilstar is participating in the second pool of recoverable grants (RPG2), where we share an interest with other foundations in a specific portfolio. The grants will be utilised as investment capital between 2022 and 2026. They are repayable based on overall performance up to a threshold. If Upaya cannot repay the grants by 2031, they will be considered philanthropic donations. Any returns for Wilstar will be re-granted to Upaya on a rolling basis.

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Wilstar

Supporting people who initiate sustainable lasting change to create a better world

Wilstar is the nonprofit social impact arm of the Arne and Lise Wilhelmsen family office and a space in which the Wilhelmsen family feel they can most effectively contribute to our society.

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