MICROCAPITAL.ORG STORY: Omidyar Network Establishes Entity In India Called Omidyar Network India Advisors With A View To Forming Closer Ties With India-Based Portfolio Organizations

It was recently reported on the Reuters news wire [1] that Omidyar
Network (Omidyar) [2], a social investment firm, has established a
new entity in India called Omidyar Network India Advisors which will be led by Mr Jayant Sinha. The Indian office will enable Omidyar to increase investments and partner more closely with India-based portfolio organizations. Mr Sinha expects Omidyar’s involvement in India to ‘catalyze economic opportunity and social impact’ in the country through ‘market-based approaches that have the potential to improve millions of lives’.

Mr Sinha gained experience with India-related investments during his time as Managing Director of Courage Capital Management [3]. He was also previously a Partner with McKinsey & Company in Delhi and Boston. It is anticipated that Mr Sinha will build on Omidyar’s existing Indian investments. To date, Omidyar has invested more than USD 43 million in India by funding organizations such as the non-profit Rural Development Institute [5] which focuses on rural land rights, the online classifieds company Quikrand and Unitus Equity Fund [6], which funds MFIs in 19 of India’s 28 states. It is hoped that the new entity in India will allow Omidyar to work closely with participants in the Indian microfinance sector.

Omidyar was established in 2004 by Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. The organization’s principal investment mandate is to help ‘scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change’. To date, Omidyar has committed more than USD 300 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations across multiple investment areas, including microfinance, property rights, government transparency and social media. Previous Microcapital.Org publications on Omidyar have been set out in the Bibliography section below [7] – [12].

By Chinq Yee Chong, Research Assistant

Bibliography

[1] Report on the Reuters news wire entitled ‘Omidyar Network establishes new entity in India’: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS39832+14-Oct-2009+PRN20091014

[2] Omidyar Network: http://www.omidyar.com/

[3] Courage Capital Management LLC: http://www.couragecap.com/index.php

[4] McKinsey and Company: www.mckinsey.com/

[5] Rural Development Institute, India: www.rdiland.org/OURWORK/OurWork_India.html

[6] Unitus Equity Fund: www.unitus.com/about-us/unitus…/unitus–equity–fund

[7] MICROCAPITAL.ORG STORY: BRAC, Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), Omidyar Network and Humanity United Form $15m Microfinance Partnership in Sierra Leone and Liberia

[8] MICROCAPITAL STORY: Microfinance Investors Back The Leapfrog Financial Inclusion Fund To Raise USD 44 Million For Microinsurance

[9] MICROCAPITAL STORY: Omidyar-Tufts $100m Microfinance Fund Earns 12 Percent Return and $6.6m for Tufts University in 2008

[10] MICROCAPITAL STORY: Omidyar Network Grants $4.5m to Opportunity International to Scale Technology-Based Microfinance Services in Africa