MICROCAPITAL STORY: Intellecap Announces In-House Partnership between its India Development Gateway (IDG) and its Srijan Microfinance Business Plan Competition to Facilitate Business Development Services for Srijan Participants

Intellecap recently partnered its incubation, the India Development Gateway (IDG) with its annual Srijan Microfinance Business Plan Competition, a competition aimed at developing solutions to microfinance institution’s (MFI’s) resource and infrastructure problems. Srijan 2008 winners were announced last week. While Srijan awarded top competitors with the cash equivalent of USD 30,335, intermixing IDG into the competition aims to provide extended support by linking the entrepreneurs with the IDG portal to hopefully further the process of making their plans into small and medium-sized businesses. Additionally, the in-house partnership is hoped to encourage new sources of capital.

IDG will provide Srijan participants with accounts on their website. The IDG portal allows the online creation and dissemination of an entrepreneur’s business plan, which the IDG rates based on the plan’s strengths and weaknesses. Investor’s also have accounts on the portal, through which they can view the entrepreneur’s business proposals and initiate investment.

By connecting borrowers and investors, IDG acts as a facilitator to microfinance investments, similar to micro-lending site kiva.org, as reported by MicroCapital here. IDG distinguishes its work from Kiva’s by noting that the IDG business plans and investments typically require loans between USD 100,000 and USD 2 million, whereas Kiva’s investments are typically less than USD 500. IDG also acts as a news source on microfinance and regional development, a job database, and an online document database.

Intellecap’s decision to join the IDG and Srijan will also provide extended publicity for the microfinance plans of the Srijan finalists as IDG aims to feature them in future publicity. Additionally, coverage of the Srijan awards will be posted via video on the IDG website.

In May 2008, the IDG portal was launched by Intellecap, one of the main organizers of Srijan 2008, and was seed-funded by the Development Gateway, a nonprofit that looks to use information technology as a method to alleviate poverty, especially by means of the web to disseminate development information. Intellecap is an Indian investment and consulting firm that works with organizations seeking both financial and social returns on investment. No further financial information is available.

By Sarah Knapp, Research Assistant

Additional Resources:

India Development Gateway portal: Launch, FAQ, Press Release, Rating System

Intellecap

Srijan Microfinance Business Plan Competition: Srijan 2008 Winners

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