NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, March 24, 2014

Omidyar Network, the Redwood City, California-based impact investment firm, will allocate $30 million this year across sectors as it looks to pick ventures that cater both to the bottom-of-the-pyramid population as well as the swelling aspirational class in India.

“India is at the forefront of impact investing along with the UK and the US, considering the amount of innovation, number of players and capital deployed here,” Matt Bannick, managing partner, Omidyar Network, told TOI in an exclusive interview. From being a lecturer at the prestigious Stanford Business School to a social impact investor, Bannick dons multiple hats as he spots ventures with a potential to reach a cross-section of the society.

Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network makes both for-profit and not-for-profit investments globally and has pumped $120 million of early-stage capital into more than 35 Indian companies since 2010. It has split its portfolio equally (50-50) among not-for-profit and for-profit.