Enabling Organisations To Enhance The Quality Of Life Of The Unserved Population
Innovative Company In Focus-2024
Maanaveeya, an innovative, distinctive, and wholly owned subsidiary of Oikocredit, has emerged as a promising player in finance. Founded in 2004, Maanaveeya is a systemically important NBFC-ND with a GLP of INR 17.42 billion. It is well capitalised with financial support from Oikocredit and is led by the dynamic leader, Dr Gouri Sankar Gollapudi, Managing Director of Maanaveeya.
The parent entity, Oikocredit Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society, is a global development finance institution with a total asset as of June 2024, is EUR 1152.2 million and a Member and Investor capital base of EUR 981 million.
Maanaveeya’s sole vision is to create a society where resources are shared sustainably and all people are empowered with the choices they need to create a life of dignity. It has diversified its exposure across sectors such as microfinance, SME finance, renewable energy finance, and agribusiness finance. It has also diversified its asset class in terms of risk categories, namely debt, sub-debt, leasing finance, and credit lines.
Serving the Unserved: The Idea Behind Maanaveeya
Working on its mission to provide financial services and support organisations to improve the quality of life of low-income people or communities sustainably Maanaveeya enables access to finance for unserved and low-income women households across rural and semi-urban areas.
“We have supported many small and emerging microfinance and NBFCs that have grown with our support. We are proud to say that many big NBFCs were our partners at some point in time. Even today, our partners want to include us on their list of lenders, even though we may be slightly more expensive than banks because we are recognised as an impact investor, which enables them to have greater leverage,” asserts Dr Gouri Sankar.
Since its establishment, the company has supported inclusive finance institutions, innovative energy solution providers, NGOs, healthcare providers, and many others in achieving their environmental and social goals.
Striving for Sustainability: Maanaveeya’s USP
Maanaveeya stands out as a leading impact investment firm by exclusively supporting companies that focus on addressing social and environmental issues, as well as NBFCs that support micro-enterprises, and women-led, and sustainable SMEs, adhering to its inclusivity principle.
“We advocate for and implement ESG assessments of our partners. As a result of our continued advocacy and support, more than 80% of Maanaveeya’s partners demonstrate strong adherence to ESG principles and have consistently improved their ESG practices, while other partners are put under improvement plan as part of the social covenants,” asserts Dr Gouri Sankar.
Maanaveeya’s partners have significantly contributed toward job creation, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also an increased focus on achieving gender equality through financing among the partners.
Keeping Up With The Clientele
The company emphasises its unique approach and commitment to its partners as a primary strategy to build client relationships. It trusts its partners and understands its needs. The Maanaveeya’s team analyses the social impact of its partners and provides input to improve it by including social covenants in the loan proposals, which no other lender does.
Being upfront and transparent with the partners enabled Maanaveeya to help the team understand each other better. The company welcomes suggestions, listens to clients’ concerns, and tries to resolve them.
Sustaining the Unprecedented Pandemic
Maanaveeya supported its partners during the pandemic period and offered to restructure some of their loans as per their request. While all other lenders stopped lending due to volatile economic conditions and market sentiment, Maanaveeya stood by its partners and offered loans to reach out to the end clients.
The team further helped the end client get solidarity kits with hand sanitiser and masks to protect them and prevent them from spreading COVID-19. Through their CSR, they extended grants to support the Government of Telangana as well.
Significance of Innovation: From the Managing Director’s Desk
Innovation has been a cornerstone for Maanaveeya. It is one of the first institutes to offer wholesale lending in India, which helped many institutions grow and transform into regulated entities.
We have introduced new products in renewable energy and microfinance to meet their financial needs. The leasing and sub-debt products have been greatly appreciated by our partners. We also offer community-focused needs for the holistic development of our clients, like WASH, education, and affordable housing. In the WASH project, we have innovatively designed our product in such a way that MFI can receive a combined loan for IGA and WASH.
Maanaveeya has addressed the problem of SMEs’ lack of financial strength and availability of collateral to acquire rooftop solar equipment. Maanaveeya itself acquired solar installations and leased the asset to the renewable energy service company.
R&D and Technological Advancements at Maanaveeya
The company is making strides in its journey with innovative ideas and technological advances, guided by Dr Gouri Sankar, to expand into new geographies and unserved segments. The analytics used for the underwriting help the team get insights into the underlying risks. They are dedicated to innovating to enhance their quality and exploring innovative ideas to expand their business verticals.
Fostering a Healthy and Happy Work Culture
Maanaveeya boasts a team of committed and resolute employees, many of whom have spent over a decade with the company, reflecting their loyalty towards the company. The company focuses on nurturing a positive work culture that empowers the company to grow in size and profitability. The work-life balance and flexibility have enabled all team members to contribute towards organizational growth. The leadership team ensures the team is motivated, recognised, and rewarded, which helps them stay aligned with the company’s goals and make continuous efforts. Further, the visionary leader focuses on educating the team through coaching and mentoring by the senior staff, and similarly, the experienced board mentors the senior management team.
Remarkable Achievements and Milestones
With over two decades of service in India, Maanaveeya has carved its name in an industry where others would not have succeeded. It successfully brought the Global Alliance for Banking with Values (GABV) chapter to India in 2018. The team elicited interest in value-based banking among bankers. As a result, many financial institutions in India have joined the GABV alliance.
Maanaveeya equally contributed to a USD 1 million fund with the International Finance Corporation in 2011 to drive WASH and rural renewable energy credit in India. Under this program, Maanaveeya extended loans to 12 MFIs, which in turn provided WASH and renewable energy credit to 233,932 beneficiaries, achieving 210% of the target.
Under similar arrangements, Maanaveeya has collaborated with the International Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank, Rabo Foundation, Dell Foundation, and Development Finance Corporation (USAID) in extending credit to agriculture and renewable energy to the SME sector.
Further, its crowning achievement, the “Mahatma Award for CSR Excellence 2022,” along with the distinction of being one of the “most preferred workplaces” by the TEAMMARKMEN, showcases the company’s innovative approach and unparalleled commitment to excellence.
Future Outlook
Moving forward, the company aims to create evidence-based impact on a large scale. This involves reaching out to the most excluded and underserved populations, with a specific emphasis on supporting social enterprise entrepreneurs.
A Pearl of Wisdom
Dr Gouri Sankar advises future entrepreneurs to build strong systems and governance for creating sustainable impact at scale.
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