Frontier Markets

🌟 Congratulations Ajaita S. to be featured in The Independent's Inaugural #Climate100 List! 🌟 We are absolutely ecstatic to share some game-changing news — Ajaita S. has been featured in 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭'𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭-𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭, a prestigious and exclusive selection of the world's 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 climate innovators! 🌍💥 This monumental recognition spotlights 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 who are rewriting the future through groundbreaking solutions in the fight against climate change. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝟏𝟎𝟎 List brings together visionaries who are 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 and 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲—from 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 and 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 to 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐬 and 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬. Ajaita’s inclusion in the 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 & 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐲 alongside giants like Satya Nadella, Lisa Jackson Yvon Chouinard Boris Gamazaychikov Eva Zabey Jonathan Maxwell Scott Tew Stefania Di Bartolomeo Randy Durband and Lauren Uppink Calderwood  highlights her incredible leadership and unwavering commitment to building a sustainable world. 💡🚀 This honor recognizes 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 who are tackling some of the planet’s biggest challenges with revolutionary ideas—from hydrogen storage and plastic-eating bacteria to chemical-free textile dyeing—and Ajaita is proud to be among them. Join us in celebrating this massive moment! The future is in our hands, and the time to act is NOW! 🌎💚 #BigNews #Climate100 #ClimateLeadership #SustainableFuture #TheIndependent #ClimateChange #BusinessAndFinance Beyond Capital Ventures Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth Echoing Green UBS UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Climate Group Clinton Global Initiative Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Artha Impact (Rianta Capital)

At #IndiaDayAtUNGA in New York, the panel "Power of Women-Led Development: Femme Forward for the Future" brought together leaders like Archna Vyas, Pritha Venkatachalam, Ajaita S., Jessica Posner Odede, and Sarah H. The discussion underscored the need to equip women with leadership skills through investments in education, technical training, and mentorship. Women must be viewed as agents of change, with innovative tech solutions addressing barriers such as limited access to education and economic opportunities. Recognising women as key players in microfinance and digital banking is vital to driving sustainable, inclusive development. Observer Research Foundation | United Nations in India #IndiaDayAtUNGA, #RFUNGA2024 #GlobalSouthStory #SummitOfFuture

🎥 Watch highlights from our Global Goals Summit 2024 Hybrid Workshop, hosted with Barclays yesterday. We thank these speakers for their great insights:     Neliswa Hare Ajaita S. Vijayaraghavan Palat  Frances Cabrera Wendy Smith The conversation continues today, to join: 👉 https://lnkd.in/ee6BfA-i #BFP_UNGA #BFP_Live

We’re excited to announce that Frontier Markers and TERI - The Energy and Resources Institute are joining hands to launch She Leads Bharat: E-Aahaar – A Pioneering Gender and Climate Initiative to take e-kitchens to the last mile! 🌍 This groundbreaking initiative will enable the adoption of clean and climate-friendly e-cooking solutions in e-kitchens at the last mile in remote villages, empowering rural women entrepreneurs and driving both gender equality and climate action. 🌱👩🌾 Over 800 million rural households in India still rely on traditional cooking fuels like wood, coal, and dung which not only harms the environment but disproportionately affect women, leading to severe health risks due to indoor air pollution. 🚶♀️ Through this initiative, we aim to transform rural cooking practices through sustainable innovation while empowering women entrepreneurs. 🌍💡 The success of #SheLeadsBharat: Udyam has paved the way for She Leads Bharat: E-Aahaar, focusing on bringing clean, climate-friendly solutions to rural households as part of the She Leads Bharat: Climate Gender Initiative. This pilot demonstration is just the beginning! 🚀 Over the next two years, we aim to scale this model to reach 500,000 rural households and ultimately, 5 million by 2030. This unique project aims to: 💡 Reduce emissions and improve health outcomes by setting up e-kitchens and experience centers in rural villages that will introduce innovative sustainable e-cooking solutions to 25,000 rural customers in rural villages of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. 💪 Empower 500 Digital Super Saheli Malls and 100 Frontier Markets Sahelis to promote, sell, and scale e-kitchen products in their communities, creating new income opportunities and economic independence. 🔋 Build a self-sustaining ecosystem where rural women can become agents of change, facilitating access to clean energy and life-enhancing products in underserved areas. 🌟 We’re calling on partners, funders, and organizations passionate about gender equality, clean energy, and climate action to join us in this visionary initiative. Together, we can empower rural women, reduce climate risks, and create lasting change for rural India. 📩 Want to be part of this transformation? Let’s connect and make a meaningful impact! #EmpowerWomen #ClimateAction #CleanCooking #Sustainability #ImpactInvestment #RuralDevelopment #GenderEquality #SheLeadsBharat #Aahar Frontier Markets, TERI - The Energy and Resources Institute, Mastercard, Acumen, Schneider Electric, IKEA, Shell Foundation Jayanta mitra, Er. Alekhya Datta, Mehdi Rizvi, Apoorva Singh, Ajaita S., Shirish Garud, Anurag Gangwar, Gautam Malik, Amrit Mohan

🚀 Bridging the Last-Mile Gap: Empowering Rural Women and Communities with the #SheLeadsImpactFund 🚀 Did you know that over 3.7 billion people worldwide live on less than $6.85/day, with most residing in underserved rural areas across Asia and Africa? These communities face extreme challenges in accessing basic goods and services like clean water, electricity, healthcare, and financial services. These communities pay higher prices for lower-quality products simply because they lack the distribution networks urban areas benefit from. Further, women in these areas rarely have access to formal jobs, and cultural norms give them fewer opportunities to move to urban areas. As a result, they are disproportionately affected by this access gap. 💡That’s why we’re excited to launch the #SheLeadsImpactFund (SLIF)—an initiative co-led by Frontier Innovations Foundation (FIF) and Hystra to transform last-mile distribution networks. #SLIF aims to enable rural areas to access beneficial goods and services, while empowering local women as agents of change! 💪 💥 The rural market potential is HUGE! In India alone, the rural market for fast-moving consumer goods hit $38.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $220 billion by 2027. But while products like soft drinks and soaps find their way into remote villages, innovative and life-changing solutions—like clean energy, healthcare, and financial services—remain out of reach due to distribution and trust challenges. 👩🌾 Women are particularly impacted. They’re often the main decision-makers for household spending but have less access to the labor market, earning 24% less than their male counterparts in LMICs. They are often also overlooked as both consumers and economic drivers: the reality is that closing the gender gap could boost GDP by nearly 8% in emerging markets! 📈 🔑 SLIF will address these challenges by: ✅ Supporting 3 last-mile distributors with tech, funding, and training over 3 years. ✅ Helping them increase annual sales by $10M+ each. ✅ Doubling the income of 9,000+ local agents, with a focus on empowering women. ✅ Attracting $6M+ in additional investments for these ventures to scale their efforts. 💡 The future of rural communities—and the women within them—depends on better access to essential goods, services, and economic opportunities. Let’s make it happen. We’re seeking partners, funders and connectors who share this vision to help us expand our reach. 📩 Want to help us make a lasting impact? Let’s connect! #EmpowerWomen #LastMileDistribution #SocialImpact #Sustainability #ImpactInvestment #RuralDevelopment #GenderEquality #SheLeadsImpact Ajaita S. Lucie Klarsfeld McGrath Mehdi Rizvi Amrit Mohan Gautam Malik Beyond Capital Ventures Acumen Joana Furquim Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth

We are beyond excited to announce the launch of our first branded #SuperSaheliMetaMall in partnership with Saint-Gobain! This moment marks a major step in our journey to empower rural women entrepreneurs and bring essential products and services directly to their communities. This is the #firstbrandedstore out of our network of 10,000+ digital meta malls, which are managed by rural women entrepreneurs empowered by Frontier Markets. These stores span across Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in India, with a vision to scale to 100,000 digital meta malls across 20,000+ villages in 7 states by 2027. We are immensely grateful to Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth for supporting this journey of setting up and activating these meta malls under the #SheLeadsBharatUdyam initiative. The Super Saheli Meta Mall is more than just a store—it’s a symbol of #transformation. This mall is run by #Neeta, an empowered Super Saheli who leads her business with pride and independence. Neeta’s journey has also transformed her family, with her 10-year-old daughter attending an English medium school, growing as a budding YouTube influencer, and aspiring to become an IPS officer! This is the kind of generational change that happens when women rise—entire families and communities thrive. The mall gives villagers in Bhiwadi access to essential products, including FMCG, healthcare, consumer durables, and agriculture products, all within #15minutes of reach. Using the #MeriSaheliApp, rural women entrepreneurs and small businesses can digitally browse and order products, bridging the gap between rural communities and the modern commerce ecosystem. This is the #firstof10stores that will be launched in the coming months, and we couldn’t be prouder of this accomplishment. We are also grateful to Saint-Gobain for taking the leadership in supporting our work, enabling the branding of such stores to increase local visibility, footfalls, revenue, and incomes for rural women entrepreneurs and Sahelis. This store launch is part of a larger partnership with Saint-Gobain, where together, we are training 40 women entrepreneurs across 10 villages in the Bhiwadi region. These women are stepping up as community leaders, running businesses that provide much-needed access to essential goods. We invite CSR donors and market partners to support our vision of scaling these digital meta malls in rural villages and transform the lives of many Neeta and their daughters in rural India. Together, we can reshape rural India—one Super Saheli Meta Mall at a time. 💪 #StoriesOfEmpowerment #FrontierMarkets Ajaita S. Mehdi Rizvi Amrit Mohan Gautam Malik #JayeshSoni #UrvashiSharma

ONE day left to apply! Calling all women leaders in India to apply for eTrade for Women Masterclass by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) with Ajaita S. and the ERIA: Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia. This Masterclass represents a pivotal moment for South Asia, offering a chance to redefine how the world perceives our region as a unified force for innovation and progress. Here’s what the women candidates will benefit from participating: - Be the #VoiceofSouthAsia: Represent your country on a global stage and gain strategies to elevate your business while making a lasting difference in your community.  - #Network with global leaders and visionaries: Connect with like-minded entrepreneurs, mentors, and industry experts.  - #CelebrateDiversity: We’re spotlighting voices from underrepresented, indigenous, and minority communities, enriching the conversation with fresh perspectives.  - #MasterEssentialSkills: Gain insights from top industry experts on how to excel in the ever-evolving digital landscape. Here’s encouraging all women leaders to seize this opportunity to drive innovation and change. The final #deadlinetoapply is #September11th. Share this opportunity with relevant women entrepreneurs and networks. APPLY NOW - [https://bit.ly/4e7FA1m] #eTradeforWomen #WomenEntrepreneurs #Masterclass Women Economic Empowerment Program Mastercard Mastercard Foundation Confederation of Indian Industry UN Women United Nations Beyond Capital Ventures Unreasonable

We are thrilled to announce a groundbreaking partnership between Frontier Markets and 360 ONE Foundation under the transformative She Leads Bharat: Udyam initiative! This pioneering initiative is set to significantly elevate the income of small women-owned businesses in rural villages who are “#NewtoCredit.” The program aims to empower these entrepreneurs by enhancing their creditworthiness through blended finance and unlocking access to formal capital. Key Highlights: * Empowerment Focus: The initiative will support 2,000 women-owned businesses in rural Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh that are new to credit, providing them with catalytic capital in the form of returnable grants. These grants are zero-interest and zero-collateral loans with only a moral obligation to repay to Saral Jeevan India Foundation (strategic partner of Frontier Markets). * Innovative Approach: The project aims to elevate these women’s monthly incomes and eventually unlock path to access formal capital to sustain and scale their businesses, by establishing their creditworthiness through transaction and repayment data using the Frontier Markets’ Meri Saheli App * Capacity Building: The project includes comprehensive support such as capacity building, handholding, and market linkages across two cycles, aiming to elevate the monthly incomes of participating women entrepreneurs. * Sustainable Impact: The funds returned to Saral Jeevan India Foundation will be reinvested into new cohorts of women-owned businesses. Additionally, a portion of the returned funds will be used to create a first-loss default guarantee, unlocking additional formal capital at 3-5x financial leverage from other partners. #WhyThisMatters: Women-owned businesses in India, though comprising 20% of all MSMEs, receive only 5% of public-sector bank financing. By addressing this gap, our initiative not only promotes financial inclusion but also fosters inclusive economic growth. Women entrepreneurs, when supported, are more likely to drive positive change in their communities by hiring locally, repaying credit, and reinvesting in their families. This partnership builds on the #SheLeadsBharatUdyam, an initiative anchored by Frontier Innovations Foundation and Frontier Markets and supported by Mastercard and Airtel Payments Bank, was launched at the #WorldEconomicForum in Davos in January 2023 as a coalition to bring together pioneers, innovators, and leaders committed to advancing women's empowerment. For more details, read the full press release here: [https://bit.ly/47eOGr6] #FinancialInclusion #WomenEmpowerment #SmallWomenBusinesses #InnovativeFinance #RuralDevelopment #FrontierMarkets #360ONEFoundation #SheLeadsBharat #InclusiveGrowth #EmpowerWomen #India 360 ONE 360 ONE Wealth Yatin Shah Anirudha Taparia Anshuman Maheshwary Anup Maheshwari Saumya Lashkari Navin Upadhyaya Ronak Sheth Anil Mascarenhas Mardav Gala Ajaita S. Amrit Mohan Gautam Malik Mehdi Rizvi Anurag Gangwar Karan Bhagat

#EnergyFinance2024 Spotlight on Ajaita S.: A Visionary Leader Empowering Rural Communities 🌟 We are thrilled to spotlight Ajaita S., the Founder and CEO of Frontier Markets, as she takes the stage at Welcome to Day 2: Regional Energy Transition Success Stories. Ajaita is a driving force behind Frontier Markets, where she shapes vision, strategy, investments and partnerships, transforming the lives of rural communities across #India. With over 15 years of experience in #microfinance, rural distribution, marketing and access, Ajaita has been dedicated to empowering rural women through innovative business models, financial inclusion, technology, data and clean energy solutions. In her presentation today, Ajaita shared invaluable insights: 👉 Her Mission: To elevate rural #womenleaders and link rural communities with high-impact solutions to address their life challenges. 👉 Technology and Training: Employing a tech-driven approach and a network of women entrepreneurs to drive market access and service delivery. 👉 Impact: Serving over 5,000 villages, reaching 3.5 million rural households and delivering more than 100 million solutions. Ajaita S. encapsulates the belief that, “Women are disproportionately affected by climate change. They are also uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between market and community.” Illustrated graphic by Iris Maertens ⤵ #Leadership #Empowerment #CleanEnergy #SocialImpact #WomenInBusiness #FrontierMarkets 

What an inspiring session at #Charcha2024 today on "Building the Future of Women in Work!" The discussion not only highlighted the essential role women play in driving innovation, resilience, and community progress but also underscored the pivotal role technology plays in this revolution. Ajaita S. perfectly captured our mission with her insightful words: “We believe the best ways to win the hearts and minds of rural people is through women. Women are the center of influence, the center of power, and the center of change.” Key Takeaways: - Opportunity and Confidence: We loved how Varun Khaitan emphasized the need to create more opportunities for women and boost their confidence, ensuring they feel secure and supported as they step into leadership roles and achieve financial independence. For example, over 15,000 women are part of the workforce at Urban Company. - Policy and Corporate Sector: Echoing our beliefs, Renu Sud karnad's keynote reinforced our belief that robust policies are crucial in the corporate sector for fostering an inclusive environment that supports women’s advancement. - Technology as a Catalyst: Ajaita highlighted how grassroots women rely heavily on technology, demonstrating its essential role in empowering women, enhancing their skills, and connecting them to broader markets. - Data is Key: We couldn't agree more when Pooja Sharma Goyal and Sharon Buteau discussed how crucial gender-disaggregated data is for driving progress and solving problems effectively on the ground. At #FrontierMarkets, we are dedicated to equipping women with digital literacy, entrepreneurship skills, and market access to ensure their success. By addressing their needs and leveraging real-time validated data, we help transform insights into impactful actions that drive meaningful change. The inspiring stories and discussions at #Charcha2024 reaffirm our commitment to an inclusive and equitable future of work, led by the remarkable women who are poised to drive this change. A heartfelt thank you to The/Nudge Institute and all the panelists for an enlightening and motivating event. Let’s continue to champion a future where women lead with confidence, innovation, and resilience, shaping a brighter, more equitable world for all. For those who missed it, watch the glimpse below! #CharchaContinues