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Aavishkaar wins challenge for their work with Waste Management firm - NEPRA
The EMPEA Institute's third annual Sustainability and Operational Excellence Challenge, award was conferred on Aavishkaar the global impact investing pioneer for outstanding sustainable impact from an operational, environmental, social and governance perspective.
The award recognized Aavishkaar for its role in value creation for their investment in Nepra Resource Management, which diverts waste away from landfills by following a very scalable model of recycling dry waste (recyclables such as plastics, glass and paper), while positively impacting the livelihoods of waste pickers in India.
Aavishkaar secured 71% votes from a global audience of over 250 leading emerging market private capital investors convened at the EMPEA Sustainable Investing in Emerging Markets summit. Denham Capital for its investment in Rio Energy and IFC and IFC Asset Management Company (AMC) for their investment in Bandhan Bank Limited, were the other two leading finalists.
The finalists were chosen out of global submissions from the emerging markets fund manager community, and they represented the firms receiving the highest marks across the various categories of selection criteria from an independent panel of judges. This year's judges included Natasha Buckley, Senior Manager, Private Equity Program at UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI); Shawn Cole, John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration, Finance Unit at Harvard Business School; and, Gayle Peterson, Associate Fellow, Said Business School, Oxford University and Director, Oxford Impact Investing and Social Finance Programs. Emerging market fund managers and global institutional investors attending the summit made the final selection of the winner after hearing presentations highlighting key impact and operational metrics.
Ajay Maniar, Partner, Aavishkaar, fund manager winner and presenter, remarked after receiving the most audience votes, "We are honored to receive this award. Aavishkaar had identified waste management as an investment opportunity that could create both impact for marginalized communities and commercial value for its funds while addressing a pressing environmental issue. We backed the young team at Nepra in 2013 to take on this challenge. It has been immensely satisfying journey for us to see Nepra completely transform its operations and processes by leveraging the power of technology to achieve rapid scale. Nepra is an endorsement of our investment philosophy that scale, sustainability and impact can go hand in hand. "
Sandeep Patel, Co-Founder & CEO, Nepra, portfolio company winner and presenter, added, "We are extremely excited and encouraged to receive this award. For an early stage entrepreneur getting the right investor is important. We have been fortunate to have an investor like Aavishkaar who empowered us not only with capital, but with a great deal of support in transforming our vision into a scalable business."
About NEPRA Resource Management Pvt Ltd:
'Let's Recycle' is an initiative of Nepra Resource Management Private Limited, a waste management services company based out of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Lets' Recycle - NEPRA is building a sustainable value-chain for dry waste collection, processing and recycling leading to a 'Circular Economy'. Founded by Sandeep Patel, Dhrumin Patel and Ravi Patel in 2011, it brings transparency and scalability in the highly unorganized Indian waste management sector, benefiting bottom of pyramid and improving resource efficiency and promoting Circular Economy Model. To know more about Nepra, please visit http://www.letsrecycle.in.
About EMPEA:
EMPEA is the global industry association for private capital in emerging markets. An independent, non-profit organization, the association brings together 300+ firms-including institutional investors, fund managers and industry advisors-who manage more than US$5 trillion in assets across 130 countries. EMPEA members share the organization's belief that private capital can deliver attractive long-term investment returns and promote the sustainable growth of companies and economies. EMPEA supports its members globally through authoritative research and intelligence, conferences, networking, education and advocacy. To find out more and join the association, please visit EMPEA.org or contact us at membership@empea.net.
About Aavishkaar:
Aavishkaar, a part of the Aavishkaar-Intellecap group, is one of the global pioneers in impact investing, taking an entrepreneurship based approach to development. Since its incorporation in 2002, Aavishkaar has gone on to make more than 58 investments, across sectors and geographies including the low income states and has raised six funds, delivering commercial returns with a total of USD 300 Million under management. Aavishkaar's unique approach has resulted in its invested enterprises impacting over 70 million lives and creating over 250,000 jobs and livelihoods. Aavishkaar started its journey in India and invests across South Asia and South-East Asia. Aavishkaar has now launched its 7th fund in Africa.
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