50 l ENTREPRENEUR l JULY 2019T
hrough Menterra Social Impact
Fund, Mukesh Sharma invests in
social enterprises that are using the
power of technology, to improve the
quality of farming, healthcare and
education in India. He has 16 years of
rich experience in start-up incubation,venture capital, impact investing, investment
banking and finance. Earlier, he was the Chief
Investment Officer at Villgro, India’s oldest and
foremost social enterprise incubator. Sharma is a
Chartered Accountant and a CFA Charterholder. He
has been a member on the Capital sub-committee
of the Impact Investors Council of India. Menterra
Social Impact Fund 1 has at least eight companies
that show tremendous potential. Talking about
his investment philosophy he says, “We have
invested close to US$3m in these companies and
helped unlock US$2m in debt funding through our
network. Each of these companies are on course
to be larger than our fund in terms of revenue and
to deliver on our promise of Impacting India while
delivering market returns.” Three of the most
advanced in terms of revenue traction are:
The Impact Investor
By Punita Sabharwal
CHEQUE IT OUT
Business Unusual1 /Biosense is using cutting-edge IoT
products with focus on India’s twin
challenges, malnutrition and diabetes.
All devices have cloud connectivity with
geo tagging that provide accurate data
for more targeted health interventions.
With over 10 million tests, Biosense
has made access to basic diagnostics
possible for some of India’s poorest,
in diverse geographies including
the hilly regions of Ladakh, desert
districts of Rajasthan and tribal areas of
Maharashtra. Biosense was identified by
their incubator partner Villgro at an idea
stage. They incubated and provided
intense operating support to Biosense
for five years. This partnership from idea
to scale journey resulted in Menterra
making an equity investment in Biosense
in 2016.2 /FarmFolks works with small farmers and
retail partners to deliver fresh, certified, high-
quality fruits and vegetables to consumers.
They help the farmers through training on
globally accepted agronomic practices
and ensure a fair price for their certified
produce. Through fair and transparent
market access, direct procurement at the
farm-gate and elimination of non-value
adding intermediaries, Farm Folks can
provide tremendous value to the farmers and
retail partners. Menterra’s agriculture team
undertook a detailed research to identify
companies providing better market linkage,
higher yield and income to small farmers.
As part of this exercise, they identified
Farm Folks for equity investment. The team
conducted several field visits to validate
the investment and impact thesis before
Menterra investment.3 /Chrysalis is focused on bringing
holistic change in the current
education system to deliver better
learning outcomes starting from
early-learning years. It acts as a core
curriculum provider and academic
partner with innovative pedagogy
that develops creative and critical
thinking. Chrysalis is currently
present in 11 states, in 500+
schools with 250,000 students.
Chrysalis was introduced to them
by an impact focused ed-tech
consulting firm. Menterra partnered
with Chrysalis to deliver a difficult
trinity of learning outcomes, sound
economic fundamentals and access
to underprivileged students.Mukesh Sharma
Co-Founder &
Managing Director,
Menterra Venture
Advisors