Aavishkaar pioneered social risk investing with a view to attract mainstream capital to early stage social enterprises that create social impact and generate wealth. These enterprises source products/services from the poor, provide effective products to the poor, and/or allow the poor to share in the ownership of the businesses. Aavishkaar is unique because the fund:.

a) Provides equity investments to entrepreneurs in Rural and Social businesses at a very early stage when other financing is not available.

b) Provides a very small amount of equity capital and manages to do so profitably for a large number of enterprises without using grant aid.

c) Uses flexible investment structuring to ensure that businesses have adequate capital to scale while also enabling the entrepreneurs to retain significant value for themselves and others who are involved in the company for long term.

d) Follows a unique engaged hands-on approach to investing not usually followed by funds with a geographically dispersed portfolio.

e) Installs monitoring and evaluation processes to ensure that portfolio companies achieve both commercial and social returns.

f) Has invested in more than 20 businesses and has a success rate of above 80% over 10 years.

g) Has attracted mainstream capital to its investee companies.

h) Has demonstrated successful exits from its investments.

i) Is scalable and replicable across sectors and geographies due to its simplicity and ability to appeal to a mainstream audience.

j) Has established a social impact investing model which is a true for-profit model and has never used grants to achieve its aim. This sustainable model reduces the demand on philanthropic capital which can instead support charity causes that do not have business solutions.