Gouri Sankar Gollapudi,Managing Director, Maanaveeya

Microfinance in India has played a pivotal role in driving financial inclusion for the underserved communities, empowering the marginalized sections, particularly low income people. Furthermore, with rising inequality in wealth generation, the sector has emerged as a beacon of hope, contributing 2.03 percent to the national GAV and creating/ sustaining 1.3 cr jobs every year. The microfinance sector is consequently anticipated to experience robust advancement in the near future, further propelled by the rising demand for more financial services, improving digital infrastructure, supportive RBI policies, and robust systems like credit bureaus.

However, challenges such as funding constraints at favorable interest rates and growth capital accessibility continue to be significant struggles for small and medium MFIs. Catering to these institutions, Maanaveeya Development & Finance Private Limited, an Indian subsidiary of Oikocredit, shines as a supportive partner, offering customized products like sub-debt, to foster growth among small and medium MFIs. Prioritizing social performance and ESG improvements, Maanaveeya helps partners achieve their diverse goals, extending unmatched support to these institutions.

Dynamic Products for Evolving Aspirations

As an extension of the international cooperative Oikocredit, a 50 year old global development finance institution with its central office in the Netherlands, boasting a total asset worth 1152.2 million Euro (as of June’24); Maanaveeya is a prominent institution with over two decades of experience in India. The company is a systematically critical NBFC-ND with an INR 17.42 billion GLP.

Furthermore, specializing across diverse sectors including financial inclusion (microfinance and SME finance), renewable energy finance, and agribusiness finance, the company offers extensive services and products to suit the unique and dynamic needs of its partners. Moreover, Maanaveeya has also developed a diversified asset class in terms of risk categories namely debt, sub-debt, leasing finance and credit line. As far as loan types are concerned, the company offers loan, credit line, working capital and demand loan, subordinate debt, and leasing finance.

Catering to social enterprises and for-profit enterprises primarily, the company carefully chooses its partners, ensuring they are entities driven to make a positive impact; and actively seeks innovative financing models to accommodate the distinctive requirements for making an impact.

“Beyond financial products, we help partners improve their social impact by assessing their ESG scores and support them to improve the areas of concern by developing an action plan and monitoring the social covenants. Our ESG score card is unique for each sector. For Maanaveeya, ESG assessment is a rigorous and religious process. In fact, we are one of the pioneers in the industry in introducing the ESG assessment to the sector and our tool has evolved over the last 12 years to stay ahead of evolving demands”, shares Dr. G.Gouri Sankar, Managing Director at Maanaveeya Development & Finance.

Adding to this, hand-holding interested partners to carry out impact assessment studies, Maanaveeya employs a streamlined approach of collecting data, and analyzing it through rigorous procedures, thereby ensuring its solutions are positively helping partners to improve their Social, Governance and Environment systems and processes.

With the dedication towards driving meaningful difference while maintaining top-notch standards of ethical responsibility, Maanaveeya takes immense interest in driving CSR activities. The firm has been allocating 2.3 percent of the profits towards the CSR initiatives, and has developed strategies to ingrain ideas of innovation and sustainability. Carefully handpicking contributions made such as in Akshaya Patra Foundation, L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, and Narayan Seva Sansthan, among others, the company is fueled to enhance initiatives that have a lasting social impact.

Maanaveeya places a strong emphasis on impact as a core principle of its business model, positioning it as socially and environmentally responsible lenders within the sector it caters. “We are mission-aligned with our partners, fostering a strong mutual understanding that is crucial for initiating successful relationships. Our unique product and process are meticulously designed to support their growth needs. The key differentiators are our core values: empowerment, solidarity, sharing, grassroots involvement, integrity, and sustainability. These values drive our systems and processes, ensuring an inclusive approach in all aspects of our work”, further adds Dr. G.Gouri Sankar.

Vision for the Future

Maanaveeya is encouraged to pursue its vision of creating a global society that is just and where resources are shared equally and sustainable, empowering all people, providing them the privilege of making choices to achieve a life of dignity.

With this vision at its core, the company has big aspirations for the coming years, with a multifaceted strategy to achieve its vision. Maanaveeya strives to develop impactful innovations at large scale with the capacity to extend to thousands of clients directly and indirectly. The company is focused on creating meaningful engagement with end clients, of its partners by prioritizing some key areas for improvement including financial inclusion for empowering the underserved communities, by creating jobs which can lead to socio-economic development.

In addition to these, the company is also prioritizing clean energy initiatives, promoting sustainable solutions and minimizing carbon footprints, while it also paying critical attention to propelling the advancement of e-mobility by supporting innovations and infrastructure development. Furthermore, the company aims to adhere to global industry best practices, not only refining its own procedures and technologies, but also setting a precedent for the sector to follow. With these diverse aspirations, Maanaveeya not only aims to be a global leader, but an ambassador inspiring others to follow suit, which leads to worldwide social improvement and upliftment.