All Publications

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  Malawi Digital Agriculture Ecosystem Assessment

  PUBLISHED: March, 2022

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  Opportunities and Constraints of Women Owned Very Small Enterprises in India by International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Intellecap,

  PUBLISHED: March, 2022

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  DISRUPTIVE ROLES IN GENDER LENS INVESTING IN KENYA

  PUBLISHED: March, 2022

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  The Future of Work(ers)

  PUBLISHED: November, 2021

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  Designing for Inclusion within Circularity- A Prototype On-ground

  PUBLISHED: September, 2021

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  The Africa Summit 2021 Report

  PUBLISHED: September, 2021

  Tags: SankalpAfrica

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  Circular+: Evidence for Inclusive Circular Business Models in the Indian

  PUBLISHED: August, 2021

  Tags: #CircularApparel #SustainableFashion #Circular+ #CircularBusiness

  READ MORE
• 

  Waste-to-Value Startup Ecosystem: Opportunities for the Circular Approaches in East Africa : An Intellecap Publication, Supported by Bestseller Foundation

  PUBLISHED: July, 2021

  Tags: Africa, Circular Economy, Sustainability, Waste Management, Intellecap Africa

  READ MORE
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  Leading Tanzanian Women in Financial Services – An examination of gender equality in Tanzania’s financial services sector

  PUBLISHED: June, 2021

  READ MORE
• 

  Intellecap Lighthouse 3.0 – An Anthology of Thoughts & Insights (2021)

  PUBLISHED: June, 2021

  READ MORE


Malawi Digital Agriculture Ecosystem Assessment
PUBLISHED: March, 2022
Digital agriculture technologies (DATs) have the potential to address the challenges facing the agriculture sector in Malawi by transforming how agri-food actors access information, goods, and services. DATs consist of advanced digital innovations that enable smallholder farmers, agribusinesses, governments, and development partners to in­crease their productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness, thereby contributing to improved agricultural outcomes. Technologies such as mobile phones, drone and satellite imagery, moisture sensors, geographic information sys­tem (GIS), internet of things (IoT), and machine learning are playing a critical role in the agriculture sector enabling the actors to address key challenges along the value chains.
DATs present immense advantages and opportunities to advance the development of the agriculture sector. DATs can be applicable across several use cases. First, DATs help farmers to make more informed production decisions through accurate, timely, and location-specific, weather, and agronomic data advisory. Second, DATs reduce infor­mation asymmetry across the value chain enabling farmers to access timely information on prices and markets and directly engage with the buyers. Third, DATs streamline supply chains and reduce operating costs across value chains.
The growth, scale-up, and sustainability of DATs is highly dependent on an enabling ecosystem including the avail­ability and accessibility of the foundational digital infrastructure and digital skills. This study, commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through DAI seeks to assess the digital agriculture ecosystem in Malawi to identify challenges and opportunities to inform USAID/Malawi Mission’s current and fu­ture programming. The key objectives of the study include:
1. Undertake a stakeholder mapping of the relevant actors within the digital agriculture ecosystem in Malawi, with a particular focus on local actors.
2. Identify key challenges and opportunities to leverage digital technologies more effectively in the agriculture and allied sectors among stakeholders in Malawi, consistent with USAID/Malawi’s priorities.
3. Identify key challenges and opportunities specific to Malawian women and youth in agriculture and aligned sectors concerning digital agriculture.
4. Evaluate macro-level quantitative and qualitative data and develop recommendations to promote growth of DATs in the country.
This study was commissioned by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau for Resilience and Food Security on behalf of the USAID/Malawi Mission and conducted under the DAI-led Digital Frontiers project. The report was authored by Intellecap with support from UMODZI Consulting Ltd
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Opportunities and Constraints of Women Owned Very Small Enterprises in India by International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Intellecap,
PUBLISHED: March, 2022
This report presents a post COVID, cluster-based landscape of Women’s Very Small Enterprises (WVSEs) in India and quantifies the untapped credit opportunity. It builds the case for financial institutions to design targeted products for this segment and provides recommendations on how these can be deployed.
Women-owned very small businesses (WVSEs) in India, with an estimated credit demand worth INR 836 billion ($11.4 billion), need the strong support of financial institutions (FIs), as per this latest report from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), ‘Opportunities and Challenges of Women-Owned Very Small Enterprises in India’, enabled by Intellecap. This support will facilitate their growth and drive socio-economic inclusion by eliminating existing challenges.
Launched on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2022, the report says WVSEs face numerous challenges, including inadequate access to capital, technology and information, and infrastructure gaps. There are about 15 million women-owned MSMEs in India, and contrary to popular perception, over 70 percent of them are manufacturing enterprises, many of them home-based.
In addition to challenges mentioned, the segment of women entrepreneurs who often overcome biases from within the family and the business community, witness fractional treatment when it comes to lending. The report says FIs have traditionally catered to men-owned enterprises. The approach then limits the understanding of the operating contexts of women-owned businesses and their socio-cultural constraints. Given that most women entrepreneurs are self-financed, the lockdowns imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted their business and reduced their income.
This report identifies sectors that WVSEs operate in and highlights the characteristics of these enterprises. It also provides a granular perspective of WVSE business operations in each of the sectors including the nature of businesses they engage with and the intermediaries who provide support to them. On this basis, the report suggests ways for FIs to design new products and new processes to address the needs of WVSEs.
Authors:
Poorna Bhattacharjee/IFC, Srijan Kaushik/IFC, Anil Birla/IFC, Natalia Kaur Bhatia/IFC, Vikas Bali/Intellecap, Mukund Prasad/Intellecap, Amar Gokhale/Intellecap, Abhishek Gupta/Intellecap , Neha Kumar/Intellecap
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DISRUPTIVE ROLES IN GENDER LENS INVESTING IN KENYA
PUBLISHED: March, 2022
Gender lens investing (GLI) is an approach to investing into companies, organizations and funds that takes into consideration gender[1]based factors across the investment process to advance gender equality and better inform investment decisions.
Although most funds that invest with a gender lens are based in and operate in the Global North, investors operating in developing countries have also started to adopt the practice in recent years, investing in women-owned enterprises and in enterprises that empower women as customers, employees, suppliers or distributors (termed as gender[1]inclusive businesses). Research demonstrates a strong business case for investing with a gender lens: companies which have women in leadership demonstrate higher share price returns, better attract and retain talent, and are more creative.
However, the scale of GLI remains small, despite increasing interest in this asset class. Women entrepreneurs attract a minority of global investments, receiving 2.3% of global VC funding in 2020. Lack of tailored funding, gender bias from capital providers, inadequate business and technical skills, lack of networks and patriarchal social norms are the key challenges restricting access to finance for women-owned enterprises. Gender[1]inclusive businesses struggle with limited access to information, lack of investor networks and a limited ability to measure their gender impact.
In Kenya, women entrepreneurs similarly struggle to access capital. Most women-owned businesses in Kenya operate informally and struggle to access capital from sources beyond friends and family, microfinance institutions and savings groups (such as Chamas and SACCOs) . Banks and investors often do not view them as potential customers. This is also the case for formal enterprises: although 34% of formal microenterprises in Kenya are women-owned, they account for 76% of the total financing gap for formal microenterprises in the country.
While progress is slow, multiple interventions by the government, donors and ecosystem support organizations are helping channel capital with a gender lens. Aspects such as local presence of impact investors, a growing number of women in business, improved educational attainment of women and a growing entrepreneurial support ecosystem have been enabling GLI in Kenya.
However, success has been mixed, with existing strategies and interventions being unable to sufficiently serve women-owned and gender-inclusive businesses. There is therefore a need for innovative and disruptive solutions to increase GLI in Kenya. This study builds on existing research through consultations with ecosystem stakeholders to identify persistent market gaps and challenges experienced across the GLI ecosystem and potential solutions to address these.
This research provides an in-depth assessment of the gender lens investing market in Kenya. This report builds on existing research through consultations with ecosystem stakeholders to identify persistent market gaps and challenges experienced across the gender lens investing ecosystem and potential solutions to address these.
The key objectives of the research include-
Understanding the business needs and challenges of women-owned and gender-inclusive microenterprises and small and medium enterprises in Kenya
Exploring the varying needs of stakeholders to effectively channel capital with a gender lens
Investigating critical market gaps in the gender lens investing ecosystem
Identifying gender lens investing opportunities that address the structural challenges faced by women-owned and gender-inclusive enterprises
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The Future of Work(ers)
PUBLISHED: November, 2021
Intellecap is proud to launch its ‘Future Of Work(ers) : A Way Forward’ Report, that brings to light its extensive research findings during the course of the pandemic to understand the aspirations, needs & challenges of the labor market in India.
The research included voices from the ground (over 750 existing and incoming workforce members and nearly 150 MSME employers) across 5 States of India; representing different contexts across geographic, socio-economic and cultural parameters of the respondents.
By evaluating the 3 key constituents in this ecosystem – incoming workforce/ youth, existing workforce and employers in the industry, Intellecap was able to build a roadmap that charts out the essential resources to improve the overall quality of the workforce, enable better market linkages, and support enterprises to raise the overall standard of living for their employees.
These measures are imperative to shape a more inclusive future of work(ers) in India.
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We’ve distilled all our Report insights into an extremely detailed and easy to navigate infographic that takes into account the perspectives of key ecosystem actors, the gaps that continue to persist in the labour market, and finally the potential solutions that could transform the landscape for the workforce, and allow them the agency to choose their journey of employment vs. entrepreneurship.

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Designing for Inclusion within Circularity- A Prototype On-ground
PUBLISHED: September, 2021
Mumbai,  8 September – Circular Apparel Innovation Factory’s Project Circular+ gave them an unique opportunity of innovative prototyping. From discovery of ideas to solution building through a working group led engagement; and finally testing on ground in the form of a  pilot. The journey itself was a learning curve. It serves as a case study of collaboration and co-creation. CAIF’s efforts, along with their partners resulted  in completing 120+ hours of virtual  training that covered 19 structured modules on diverse facets of production and witnessed a remarkable change.
CAIF not only found increased skill levels among the women workers, but more importantly, their enhanced confidence, motivation and income potential was the highlight of the project.
Nancy Charaya from CAIF, Intellecap shares more in her blog on the CAIF Circular+ Case Study.
As we envision the fashion (incl. textiles and apparel) industry’s transition towards the circular economy, the adoption of circular business models that are both planet and people positive is crucial.
Project Circular+ (conceptualized, designed and implemented with support from Laudes Foundation), launched by Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) in May 2020, was born from that vision. Circular+ aimed to create a model for collaborative and innovative prototyping for inclusive circular business models in India.
This case study captures several stages of the process beginning with the journey from arriving at the collaborative prototype (through an industry working group), from outlining the objectives of the prototype that informed the pilot design, to executing the pilot and learnings from it and finally articulating a few priority lenses that we believe can significantly inform the design of future interventions to scale planet and people positive impact through circular business models – both in India and beyond.
In short, the case study is structured in four (4) parts:
PART I – Getting to the collaborative prototype & defining prototype objectives
An innovation challenge was launched to surface existing circular business models, and 4 enterprises were shortlisted to become a part of the working group from an initial list of 20 enterprises we engaged with.
 We curated a diverse set of industry stakeholders who represented points of view from brands, manufacturers, ecosystem enablers, venture capital, policy research and think tanks, accelerators, and technology enterprises who were directly or indirectly part of the fashion value chain. These 4 innovators formed 4 ideas labs within the working group, and each of them developed collaborative prototypes that were tested on the ground.
 The jury selected one enterprise (Twirl.store) based on the scalability potential of the inclusive circular business model for piloting.
About Twirl – Twirl operates on an upcycling model geared to minimize post-consumer waste by providing a new life to unused clothes and diverting textiles/apparel waste away from landfills. It provides a solution for collecting and upcycling unused clothes lying in consumer wardrobes into aspirational handcrafted products while strengthening livelihood for women artisans.
PART II – Design and delivery of the prototype & its activities
To provide early evidence of success, the prototype had to meet two objectives:
1. Skill building and capacity building amongst Twirl’s women artisans to improve their income potential.
The curriculum was designed in consultation with the Twirls team and a 3- month training program was delivered virtually via training partner i.e. Master G. Multiple other workshops were also conducted such as photography, gender training to build additional competencies and generate awareness.
1. Identifying and establishing market linkages that would generate demand for upcycled products made from post-consumer waste.
Existing marketplaces with sustainability focus were identified as great potential partners for Twirl to unlock alternate sales potential. Some B2B partnerships were explored that helped create a stronger pipeline for regular orders.
PART III – Outcomes achieved, and the potential to scale
The women artisans at Twirl underwent 120+ hours of training through 19 structured modules to augment their skill sets and capacities related to different production aspects. Such extensive training (and handholding) has helped these women gain expertise in improving the quality of products aligned to market requirements and also to enhance their self-development.

The team was successful in helping Twirl launch its products on two online retail Marketplaces – Kakul and LBB and is in the process of delivering products to a third platform called Kiabza. On the B2B partnership front, the team supported Twirl to enter into a B2B partnership with Sirohi. 
PART IV – Learnings from the prototype
Download the Case Study and read more here– Case Study Circular +
Read the CAIF Blog – Here
Download Pdf Here


The Africa Summit 2021 Report
PUBLISHED: September, 2021
The Sankalp team embraced the move to a fully virtual platform for the Sankalp Africa Summit 2021. Primed by our first-ever virtual event, the Sankalp Global Summit 2020, we were prepared to leverage the virtual world for all it is worth. We were able to reach a more diverse audience than ever before and broke outside the East Africa limitations that are inherent with in-person events. We had viewership from nearly every country in Africa – for the first time, a truly African Summit.
We know that networking is the most important reason people come to Sankalp, and thanks to newly embraced technology, networking for participants was easier, and more strategic than whom you happened to bump into while standing in the coffee line. A virtual event was not without its challenges and key among them was programming for a global audience spread out across nearly 20 timezones. At our in-person events, we had numerous participants from the United States of America, Canada, and Europe, which prompted us to add late-night programming (Slumber Parties!) targeted at the international investment community and these were very well received.
We extended programming to three days, and filled every minute of it with structured networking opportunities, small group discussions, panels, workshops, deal rooms, and more – who said that virtual events are boring? We had a ton of fun, drank a lot of coffee (and a little champagne!), monitored a lot of internet traffic, managed hundreds of Zoom and Whereby sessions and breakout rooms, and hopefully changed the dynamic of virtual events for the future.
As we look to the future, we know that 1,000+ person physical events are probably not going to be possible any time soon – particularly in emerging markets, where vaccination rates remain low. If you joined us for the Africa Summit 2021, I hope we convinced you that virtual can be just as good as, if not better than, in person! If you didn’t participate this time around, we hope you will at our upcoming events. The Sankalp Global Summit 2021 is scheduled to take place virtually on October 12-14, 2021, and the Sankalp Africa Summit 2022 will take place (mostly) virtually from March 1-3, 2022.
Until we see you again, stay safe and stay healthy!
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Circular+: Evidence for Inclusive Circular Business Models in the Indian
PUBLISHED: August, 2021
Textile waste from the global fashion industry is estimated to increase by about 60% between 2015 and 2030 to reach 148 million tons — equivalent to an annual waste of 17.5 kg per capita globally. For India, the problem of textile waste is two-pronged – 1. Waste from domestic manufacturing (pre-and post-production waste) and 2. Post-consumer waste imported from US and Europe for recycling, in addition to the waste generated in India. Estimates suggest that 10%-30% of fabric waste occurs at various stages of the textile production process in India. On the other hand, India is also a leading importer of used clothing and imported old clothes worth USD$ 182 million in 2013.
The sheer magnitude of negative environmental footprint of the textile industry points towards an urgent need for the industry to innovate and adopt circular economy practices. In India, circular practices have historically been a part of the culture, reflected in second-hand trading, tailoring, repair and customization as well as swapping, sharing and passing on clothes from one generation to the next to extend their usage. However, adoption of such practices has largely been informal. The mainstream textile and apparel industry until recently, exhibited little effort towards incorporating circular practices to shift from the existing linear models of production and consumption to alternate models that would help deliver on both planet and people positive outcomes.
While the need to address environmental risks remains the key motivator for the textile and apparel industry to accelerate the adoption of circular economy models, it is equally important for such models to factor in the human aspect. This is particularly relevant in the context of India where the industry employs around 45 million people across the value chain, a majority of them being women. Given the industry’s deep social implications on aspects such as gender equity, economic parity and the future of work, it is imperative for initiatives focusing on circularity to be designed to further social inclusion.
In 2019 Circular Apparel Innovation factory (CAIF) launched Humans of Circularity (HoC), a Working Group that convenes stakeholders of the Indian textile and apparel industry on collaboratively driving the agenda around a ‘just & fair’ transition towards circularity – balancing economical & environmental sustainability while delivering positive social outcomes.
Project Circular+ was launched as a Sub-Working Group within HoC, with support from the Laudes Foundation with the objective of exploring how circular business models in the Indian textile and apparel industry can be designed to deliver social inclusion and impact at scale.
With the successful completion of the project, this report captures lessons from the design and implementation of the project as well as industry-level insights that have been captured from the Working Group deliberations.
The first section presents a repeatable approach and methodology to surface inclusive circular business models that can inform the design of future initiatives. The section provides a detailed overview of the project design and approach along with methodologies used to drive a highly collaborative and sustained co-creation process with a diverse set of ecosystem stakeholders.
The second section includes insights generated from the Circular+ Working Group which served as a platform for knowledge exchange amongst a diverse set of industry stakeholders to create a shared and unified understanding of the circular business models landscape in India and beyond. The section contains insights on the role and current state of a set of circular business models in India, associated gaps and challenges, and explores the whitespaces and opportunities for scaling their adoption.
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Waste-to-Value Startup Ecosystem: Opportunities for the Circular Approaches in East Africa : An Intellecap Publication, Supported by Bestseller Foundation
PUBLISHED: July, 2021
Sub-Saharan Africa generated an estimated 174 million tonnes of waste in 2016, at a rate of 0.46 kg per capita per day, and is projected to be the world’s fastest-growing waste-generating region by 2050. The continent finds itself struggling to achieve adequate waste management and disposal practices to keep up with the growing population and production. Waste management is, therefore, a key to the socioeconomic and environmental challenges affecting most countries on the continent. Traditional recycling and disposal methods have proven to be inefficient, leading to calls for a stronger focus on circularity and resource efficiency. There is therefore much to be done through private and public sector collaboration along the waste management value chain to ensure that countries meet their waste management targets and create sustainable solutions. Various innovative startups have established themselves in the sector to address some of the major waste management challenges, resulting in an increasingly vibrant ecosystem compared to ten years prior.
It is on this backdrop that The BESTSELLER Foundation launched the first ever waste-to-value accelerator in East Africa that was being implemented and managed by Intellecap. The objective of the accelerator was to support and scale early-stage businesses tackling waste management and recycling in the region. The accelerator sort to build a pipeline of startups in the sector (through designing a challenge program), provide tailored business development and investment readiness support to selected enterprises as well as build strong networks for the startups including advisory boards, mentors and investors to enable the startups to thrive and scale.
Through these efforts, Intellecap developed a pipeline of 249 early-stage companies that operate within the sector, both from the waste-to-value accelerator and through support from the Sankalp awards program. These companies were analyzed in order to understand their business models, they type of circularity innovation model adopted, the geographies in which they operate, their stage of operations, their sources of capital among others. Similarly, Intellecap assessed the gap and challenges that these startups face in the region and some of the opportunities that can be leveraged to scale these startups. Further, Intellecap analyzed the level of tailored support that is given to these companies including the available incubation and acceleration programs that have been launched in the region, funding sources that can be leveraged by such companies and the availability of both national and regional advisory bodies that aggregate and support startups in the sector.
This white paper therefore presents an overview of the waste sector in East Africa with a focus on waste-to-value startups. The findings highlights gaps, opportunities, and potential solutions that could accelerate the growth of the ecosystem.
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Leading Tanzanian Women in Financial Services – An examination of gender equality in Tanzania’s financial services sector
PUBLISHED: June, 2021
In 2019, IFC launched the Finance2Equal Tanzania initiative to examine the roles men and women play in the financial services sector and identify ways to reduce gender gaps and enhance women’s access to opportunities in the sector. Through Finance2Equal Tanzania, IFC has established a partnership with five Tanzanian financial services companies to reduce gender gaps in their operations.
This report, as part of Finance2Equal Tanzania, gathered data and assessed employees’ perceptions of practices that enable and/or limit gender diversity in the workforce. The quantitative analysis was complemented by a qualitative analysis of 22 women leaders in Tanzania’s financial services sector. Through their personal stories, these women provide insights about the challenges they encountered, the strategies they used to overcome these, and the actions they have taken to help the next generation of women to rise.
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Intellecap Lighthouse 3.0 – An Anthology of Thoughts & Insights (2021)
PUBLISHED: June, 2021
Since 2002, Intellecap has constantly strived to shape outcomes in emerging and underserved markets by developing key insights and new ideas. As a result, the organization has undertaken bold initiatives across its various practices to push the envelope, seeking to build collaboration and thought leadership as part of the social impact discourse.
This year marks the 3rd edition of the Lighthouse, and there’s been a concerted effort to bring more diverse, yet unique perspectives to the sectors Intellecap covers, and this year, we’ve gone a step ahead to also feature our most prominent multi-sectoral Case Studies from the year. The goal of this endeavour has always been to highlight and share the most relevant thought pieces with our external stakeholders, in order to drive across sustainable solutions that bring the collective a step closer towards achieving the SDG’s, as set forth by the United Nations.
Some of this year’s published pieces cover a diverse spectrum, including the role of angel investing during Covid, a discussion on the contentious Farm Laws in India, private sector’s participation in achieving sanitation solutions, the journey of textile waste, and impact becoming a part of mainstream discourse, among others. This compilation of knowledge pieces has contributions featured in some of the most prestigious media publications, and bears testament to their importance and contemporary nature in these present times.
While large parts of the World continue to grapple with the effects of the Covid pandemic, this period has offered all of humanity a unique opportunity to deeply reflect and reboot itself in the most prudent and innovative manner, and emerge much stronger on the other side of this global epidemic. It is our sincere hope that the Lighthouse offers you more than a glimpse into some of the most compelling geographies and sectors Intellecap serves as part of its key constituents, and aspires to continue serving in the years to come.
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