He spoke to indianexpress.com on how tech helps the influence funding sector observe its efficiency, the democratisation of tech and its influence, Edited excerpts:

Venkatesh Kannaiah: How has tech impacted the influence funding sector?

Suresh Ok Krishna: As influence buyers, we’ve been in a position to streamline our inside processes via expertise. Impact measurement and administration has change into higher. Traditional strategies of measuring social and environmental influence have been cumbersome and time-consuming.

Thanks to expertise, we now additionally make use of lean knowledge assortment approaches, utilising smartphones, IVRS, messages and calls to assemble and analyse real-time knowledge. This permits us to evaluate the effectiveness of our investments, serving to us to make well timed choices, alter methods, and optimise our portfolios for max social and monetary returns.

“The integration of tech in impact investing allows to create meaningful impact at scale more effectively,” Krishna says. (Express picture by Jithendra M.)

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Is expertise and influence via expertise a core a part of influence investing at Yunus?

Suresh Ok Krishna: As buyers, integrating tech into our funding thesis is not only advantageous, it has change into crucial, particularly with the expansion of the digital public infrastructure in India.

You should perceive that the share of our inhabitants with smartphones has surged and the price of knowledge has plummeted. This is throwing up new alternatives to faucet the untapped markets, and have larger influence.

This democratisation of tech has made it simpler for social companies to handle the wants of the bottom-of-the-pyramid inhabitants. Our funding technique includes supporting firms that leverage tech to supply companies, merchandise, or employment alternatives for the marginalised communities.

The integration of tech in influence investing permits to create significant influence at scale extra successfully. Therefore, whereas the diploma of emphasis varies, expertise stays a core and integral component.

When we point out tech, we aren’t referring to digital or software-led options. Our portfolio contains social companies utilizing deep tech and leading edge scientific methods to resolve social issues.

Suresh Krishna is the MD and CEO of Yunus Social Business Fund, Bengaluru and co-founder and companion of Yunus Social Business India Initiatives.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Can you inform us about a couple of of Yunus investments in India which created influence utilizing tech.

Suresh Ok Krishna: S4S Technologies is a meals preservation firm that’s constructing India’s full stack meals processing platform. It additionally makes use of progressive photo voltaic drying expertise to extend the shelf lifetime of farm produce, scale back post-harvest farm losses and improve farm earnings.

Carbon Masters is a local weather tech firm, working with the mission to cut back carbon emissions by changing fossil fuels consumption with progressive, clear vitality, low carbon options and merchandise. They have pioneered the conversion of meals and agri-wastes to provide two climate-friendly merchandise.

BridgeLabz is a vocational abilities coaching enterprise, which goals to cut back each unemployment and the talents mismatch amongst low-income engineering graduates from Tier 2 or 3 cities. BridgeLabz’ core mannequin is the supply of this upskilling coaching programme on-line or via its bodily lab areas, to 300+ companies.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Can you inform me about a couple of of Yunus’ Investments in different geographies which have created influence utilizing tech, and that are of relevance to India?

Suresh Ok Krishna: Grameen Intel from Bangladesh has developed a state-of-the-art good bangle, particularly designed for pregnant ladies, that may play a key position in bettering maternal well being. A singular function of the bangle is that it may possibly detect and alert the presence and stage of indoor air air pollution, notably carbon monoxide, throughout every day actions like cooking that usually includes burning wooden. The system additionally offers pregnancy-related messages and tips to make sure good well being of the mom and the kid.

Portal Telemedicina, from Brazil, is a well being tech firm that provides an progressive answer able to connecting the most effective specialty physicians to clinics and hospitals, even these in distant areas, delivering diagnostics in a couple of minutes and for an inexpensive worth.

Sero from Columbia is an agribusiness that sources discarded fruits from native small and medium producers. These fruits are lyophilized and bought to different firms that use them as enter for his or her meals manufacturing.

We have many such examples globally the place tech is used to create influence.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: How massive is the influence funding ecosystem in India, and which areas are they focussed on?

Suresh Ok Krishna: Impact investments in India have grown from $323 million in 2010 to $2.7 billion in 2019, bringing in $10.8 billion cumulatively. Initially targeted on microfinance after which broader monetary inclusion, the contribution of different (non monetary companies) sectors has steadily elevated over the last decade.

Cumulatively, roughly half the full capital deployed ($5.3 billion) and two-thirds of complete offers occurred in actual financial system sectors, and principally in agriculture, healthcare, schooling, vitality and expertise for growth.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Is there adequate concentrate on acceptable applied sciences or are we importing options from overseas?

Suresh Ok Krishna: I consider we should always draw classes from different international locations which have tried and examined profitable options. However, the problem arises after we blindly replicate options with out contemplating the contextual nuances required to handle India’s native wants successfully.

I might once more return to the instance of our distinctive ‘Digital Public Infrastructure’, an answer meticulously designed to cater to the huge scale of the Indian inhabitants. What started with the Aadhaar digital identification method again in 2009 — joined later by companies just like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), JAM (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile quantity) trinity, and Co-WIN (for managing the Covid-19 vaccination programme), amongst others — helped India obtain 80 per cent monetary inclusion in simply six years.

Its success has led to widespread adoption and emulation by different international locations. This highlights that we’re addressing India-centric challenges inside our startup ecosystem, which remains to be in its nascent phases. As the startup panorama matures, I’m assured that we’ll witness new and distinctive options originating from India.

Krishna says that the “the pressing array of social and environmental challenges surrounding us” was what drew him in the direction of influence investing. (Express picture by Jithendra M.)

Venkatesh Kannaiah: On the influence funding ecosystem, and in Tech For Good, what do you assume is working and what are the challenges?

Suresh Ok Krishna: Impact investments have successfully stepped in to bridge gaps the place the general public sector falls brief. By figuring out areas of want and directing sources in the direction of impactful options, personal capital is taking part in a vital position in supplementing public efforts.

There is a rising acknowledgment of important points corresponding to local weather change that pose existential threats. The funding neighborhood is rallying round these challenges, actively in search of and supporting progressive options. Sectors like artistic manufacturing and waste administration, which can face challenges in attracting typical financing, are benefitting from progressive monetary fashions.

The challenges are in establishing constant and universally accepted metrics for measuring influence. Investors, organisations, and stakeholders usually use completely different standards, making it troublesome to match and assess the true influence of assorted initiatives precisely.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: What introduced you to influence investing?

Suresh Ok Krishna: What drew me to influence investing was the urgent array of social and environmental challenges surrounding us. While industrial companies are undoubtedly essential gamers in addressing these challenges, their main focus usually stays on wealth maximisation, inadvertently excluding giant sections of the inhabitants.