Lal10 is a technology driven B2B platform for authentic Indian handloom and handicraft products

SEATTLE, February 28, 2020

“Lal10’s combination of social purpose, strong designs, and excellent customer base gives us high expectations for their ability to create thousands of reliable jobs for rural artisans.”

Upaya Social Ventures and Beyond Capital are pleased to announce their latest investments in Lal10, a Delhi-based aggregator of artisans. Lal10 empowers artisans by providing them with technology, skills training, sustainable eco-friendly designs, and market linkages to help them make a good living from their trades. It currently provides sustainable livelihoods to 1,200 Indian artisans from eight low-income states, connecting them directly to 300+ global retailers. They estimate that on average, an artisan’s income increases by 25% through their association with Lal10.

"Lal10’s growth has impressed us for several years,” said Kate Cochran, CEO of Upaya. “Their combination of social purpose, strong designs, and excellent customer base gives us high expectations for their ability to create thousands of reliable jobs for rural artisans."

In addition to providing equity investments in Lal10, Upaya and Beyond Capital will be partnering together to work with the team to further quantify the impact Lal10 has on their artisans’ incomes and quality of life.

“When we launched Beyond Capital, we selected India as an area of focus for our impact investment efforts because the nation has been historically overlooked by the global marketplace,” said Eva Yazhari, CEO of Beyond Capital. “Lal10’s vision aligns perfectly with ours — to champion the more than 9 million artisans living in rural India and improve their quality of life.”

Lal10 was founded in 2014 by Maneet Gohil (Co-Founder & CEO), Sanchit Govil (Co-Founder & COO), and Albin Jose (Co-Founder & VP Product Lead). They founded the company with a vision to bring light in the lives of artisans across the country, solving marketing and operations problems to source products directly from artisans, ensuring regular livelihoods to them. In Hindi, “Lalten” means lantern.

The investment round was led by Sorenson Impact Foundation. Meredith Shields, Managing Director of the foundation added, “From our first meeting with Maneet almost two years ago, we have been impressed by the Lal10 team’s thoughtful approach to not only raising artisan incomes but also creating lasting impact to the supply chain so that they can provide long term, sustainable impact to the region”.

Upaya will be bringing Maneet Gohil to Seattle in March to participate as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Seattle University and be the keynote speaker at Upaya’s annual gala on March 6th.

ABOUT UPAYA SOCIAL VENTURES

Upaya Social Ventures is fighting extreme poverty through dignified jobs. Founded in 2011, Upaya provides investment and consulting support to early-stage businesses aimed at creating jobs for the poorest of the poor. Upaya’s continually growing portfolio of impact investments has created over 15,000 lasting, dignified jobs. Endorsed by ImpactMatters as a high-impact, cost-effective nonprofit, Upaya’s teams in Seattle and Bangalore are committed to a goal of helping entrepreneurs create jobs for 50,000 people in India by 2023. Please visit www.upayasv.org for more information.

ABOUT BEYOND CAPITAL

Beyond Capital is an impact investment fund that invests in seed-stage, for-profit social enterprises throughout East Africa and India. The fund invests in businesses that are focused on greater access to health care, water, sanitation, and energy, as well as food security and financial inclusion, which can increase the quality of life and standard of living for consumers living at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Please visit www.beyondcapitalfund.org for more information.

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