Page 29 - Banking Finance September 2019

PRESS RELEASE

DBS Bank India Limited partners with Social Alpha to incubate and

accelerate social enterprises

DBS Bank India Limited and Social Alpha announced a strategic partnership, aimed at bolstering the growth of social
enterprises and supporting innovators through business mentoring and seed capital. The DBS-Social Alpha program will
strengthen the ecosystem for enterprises focusing on the areas of Inclusion, Healthcare and Environment, through a
total program grant of INR 10 MN.
Social Alpha (registered as Foundation for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship) is a Technology Business Incubator
(TBI), approved by the Department of Science and Technology (GoI), and supported by Tata Trusts, that helps create
high quality, accessible and affordable solutions through its incubation, accelerator and seed capital programs. The DBS-
Social Alpha Social Entrepreneurship program will focus on providing holistic support to entrepreneurs and equipping
them with resources for creating successful go-to market strategies, developing sustainable business models and
accelerating their product development efforts.
The shortlisted enterprises are from the current Social Alpha cohort as well as from the pipeline of social ventures
supported by DBS over the years. The three ventures that will be a part of the program over the next year and a half
Y Even Cargo - The award-winning enterprise identifies and trains women from marginalized communities to work
towards bridging low female Labour Force Participation Rate in India. It has trained and employed women as delivery
personnel for major e-commerce companies in India including Amazon, Flipkart, etc. (http://www.evencargo.in/)
Y Trust Circle - A mental health care start-up that utilises mobile & AI technology to improve emotional resiliency and
well-being for all. It empowers individuals to assess, track, and learn about their emotional well-being, gain access
to on-demand online counselling, and community support anytime, anywhere – anonymously. (https://trustcircle.co)

Y Incredible Devices - A medical device start-up company with a mission to make healthcare safe and affordable by
developing solutions which reduce treatment cost. It intends to develop, patent, and produce medical devices related
to underserved markets. The company expects to benefit 36 lakh patients by 2020. (http://incredibledevices.in/)
Speaking about the partnership, Surojit Shome – CEO, DBS Bank India said, “As a purpose-driven bank, we have an
important role to play in the sustainable development of our markets by managing our business in a balanced and
responsible way. We have been actively supporting social enterprises that address environmental and social issues through
innovative and financially sustainable solutions. Our endeavor is to help these Businesses for Good to grow their impact
in the long term through increasing their enterprise viability. Through the partnership, we will be able to leverage Social
Alpha’s expertise in incubating social enterprises, as well as their diverse network. We hope that this helps innovators to
maximise their positive impact, while achieving commercial viability.”

Elaborating on the partnership, Manoj Kumar, Co-founder & CEO, Social Alpha said “At Social Alpha we believe that
science and technology-based entrepreneurship has the potential to solve complex social, economic and environmental
challenges. We nurture the most promising mission driven teams through our business and technology incubation
ecosystem and invite investors (CSR, philanthropies, foundations) to support these social enterprises. We often hear start-
ups talk about the lack of risk capital, and parallelly, mainstream capital too has reservations on the sustainability of
social enterprises. Our partnership with DBS Bank India is bridging this gap. We are grateful to DBS' commitment to
enable entrepreneurs who are on a mission to create large scale impact, making their contribution more effective,
meaningful and measurable."
Over the years, DBS has been focused on advancing the sustainability agenda, through responsible banking, responsible
business practices and creating social impact. It was the first bank in Southeast Asia to be included in the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index Asia-Pacific, and the first Singapore bank to be named as a constituent of the FTSE4Good Global
Index. DBS has also been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the last two years.

BANKING FINANCE | SEPTEMBER | 2019 | 29