India, 16 February 2021– The annual research report on ‘2020 in Retrospect’ was released this month that outlined that ~ USD 2.6BN was mobilised by impact enterprises in 2020. The investment sectors ranged across multiple sectors including education, agriculture, healthcare, infrastructure and financial access.
According to the report, impact enterprises operate with a clear intent and focus to generate measurable, positive, social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. This report lists Blue Planet as one of the top organisations to receive impact funding to deliver the vision of sustainable waste management.
The ongoing pandemic has not discouraged impact investors to continue pledging their support to solve social and environmental challenges, according to the experts. The solutions offered by enterprises, including Blue Planet, focus on scalable, tech-based designs to help increase the benefit to people and the planet.
“The Indian impact investing sector is clearly coming of age. Notwithstanding the pandemic, Indian impact enterprises have proved to be resilient: we see continued interest from investors in investing in a variety of innovative tech-led impact ideas,” said Ramraj Pai, Chief Executive Officer, India Impact Investors Council (IIC).
2020 was significant for the education sector that attracted investments totalling ~ USD 660MN across 47 deals, with online test prep and K10 segments leading the way. Additionally, while overall impact investment volume decelerated, there was a 16 per cent spike in seed-stage investment volume reflecting the continued interest in impact investment.
Investors were most keen to back early-stage enterprises such as livelihood, waste management and healthcare sector that remains a critical challenge for the country. Overall, 2020 saw the highest financial support to achieve two key SDGs including SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure)
Blue Planet’s critical mandate to create a sustainable waste management platform that enables environmental protection and social empowerment remains relevant in today’s investment atmosphere. The company is a unique player in the region, in that it is creating scalable and innovative solutions to help stakeholders achieve their vision of a circular economy.
