Applications for The Artha Venture Challenge, a national competition run by the Artha Platform to find the most ambitious, early stage social enterprises in India closed mid-night yesterday (June 17, 2013).
After over 370 nominations from various partner organisations, entrepreneurs and investors, a whopping 114 high quality applications were received from all across India within the sectors of agriculture, energy, water, livelihoods and beyond.
What happens now that the applications are closed? Well, all the applicants will now move to the Selection phase consisting of three rounds of review – Detailed review, Due Diligence and Jury selection – and on September 1st, 2013, the cohort of 15 finalists will be announced.
The goal of the Artha Venture Challenge is to ensure that good ideas do not stay small. Therefore, once the cohort is announced, the Artha Platform will work with an in country partner from September 2013 until March 2014 to provide the finalists customised capacity building support, strategic connections and introductions to investors to secure their round of external funding.
Stay tuned on the progress of the challenge by visiting www.arthaventurechallenge.com