Business Approach

ennovent seeks to fill a valued niche in the effort to promote sustainable development at the base of the economic pyramid in developing countries.

Our business approach focuses on the following unique aspects:

1. Dedicated focus on the base of the pyramid

The number of people living in poverty at the BoP represents what is potentially the most important challenge to sustainable development facing the world. We focus on innovations that have the potential to overcome market challenges at the BoP, such as poor consumers, insufficient infrastructure and fragmented and immature markets.

2. Disruptive innovations for sustainability

Innovative products, processes, services and business models are essential to sustainable impact at the BoP. We discover entrepreneurs that either create new markets or reshape existing markets by relatively simple, convenient, low-cost innovations and that are of high value to the base of the economic pyramid.

3. Crowd-sourcing valuable solutions globally

Such innovative solutions to challenges at the BoP are dispersed across different sectors and regions. Jointly with NGOs, companies, universities and other organizations, ennovent actively seeks out the best innovations across all these sources in developed and emerging economies.

4. Financing tailored to the needs of each entrepreneur

The financial needs to develop and scale these innovations are different for each enterprise. In response, ennovent through its Sustainable Enterprise Fund offers flexible finance tools tailored to the needs of each enterprise. How we finance each enterprise needs to reflect both local legal contexts and the specific needs of the enterprise – therefore we remain open to channelling our funding via any variety of debt, equity or hybrid instruments.

5. Pooled risk fund to minimize risks for investors

ennovent employs a novel strategy for pooling risks for investors. Our Venture Fund is structured as a ‘Pooled Risk Fund’, a pioneering approach which has the potential to engage for-profit investors as well as the below-market investors that traditionally invest in social VCs. This fund allows greater total capital, and therefore greater economies of scale and efficiency.

6. Multi-disciplinary, local and global team

Success at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) does not only require financial skills. ennovent's team and its advisors and partners holds a broad set of skills and local and international knowledge from working in developing countries. Our collective expertise in social, environmental and business fields contributes to the success of our enterprises. We understand the needs of the BoP, and we operate directly and through local partners and advisors at that level.