Shivani Siroya is the CEO and Founder of InVenture. InVenture helps to expand small businesses around the world by providing access to growth capital and business tracking tools via the Internet and mobile technology.
Shivani has a wide array of professional experiences in global health, microfinance and investment banking. Prior to InVenture, she worked in health costing at the United Nations Populist Fund and in mergers and acquisitions at Health Net and Citigroup. She is a 2011 Echoing Green Fellow and a 2011 Unreasonable Institute Fellow. Shivani holds a M.P.H in health economics and policy from Columbia University and a B.A. in international relations from Wesleyan University.
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An Interview With InVenture’s Shivani Siroya
What was the inspiration behind InVenture, how it works?
Sure! InVenture is a social enterprise with a mission to provide the capital, guidance and support needed to empower micro-business owners in emerging markets to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty. We started InVenture because we saw that micro-credit was not doing enough to help existing micro-businesses expand beyond sole proprietorships and create jobs within their community.
Currently micro-entrepreneurs who launch their ventures using micro-loans are held back by micro-lending's high interest rates, rigid payback structure and lack of guidance.
They find themselves suddenly trapped in the "missing middle": the gap in financial services between micro-loans and the traditional banking sector. We wanted to change this – and find a way to get everyday people involved in the solution.
InVenture provides a simple mechanism for socially conscious individuals to fund expansion of micro-businesses in developing communities. InVenture connects micro-entrepreneurs with flexible growth capital through our online micro-investment platform. Our peer-to-peer platform provides a direct and transparent variation of traditional philanthropy, connecting InVestors to individual micro-entrepreneurs and their communities. We couple these funds with mentoring and hands on strategic guidance to help our micro-businesses grow holistically. And lastly, we require all our micro-entrepreneurs to re-invest a portion of their profit back into reproductive health, girls education and women's vocational training initiatives in their communities. This re-investment is the catalyst for a positive feedback loop – growing a community through a business, while growing a business through a community.
How does InVenture differ from other micro-lending platforms?
Well we're very similar in that we have a peer-to-peer platform that connects users to micro-businesses – but instead of micro-loans we are essentially a micro venture capital platform. We also provide mentoring and hands on strategic guidance to help businesses grow holistically through our fellows program. Our fellows work to create market linkages, provide access to information, and educate entrepreneurs on business and financial management. Entrepreneurs are also trained on how to track social performance metrics and make operational course corrections based on the findings to ensure that the business is meeting its established social goals. Lastly, we also require all our micro-entrepreneurs to contribute a portion of their profit back into their communities.
Can you tell me a story about one of the entrepreneurs you are currently supporting and how life has changed for them.
Yes, its been a very exciting year for InVenture and our micro-entrepreneurs. In the past year, our online crowd-sourcing platform has helped to empower women like Griselda Flores. Griselda is running a small community health clinic in Milpa Alta, the most rural district of Mexico City. The closest clinic offering ultra-sounds was 2.5 hrs away and she was forced to turn away dozens of women who had no other options for service. InVenture's online users helped Griselda finance an ultra-sound machine which allows her to now serve 15 pregnant women a month who otherwise had no access to affordable care.
via: www.fastcompany.com