India’s tryst with art began back when not many civilizations even existed, but Indian traditional art is now dying a slow death. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the problem, with thousands of artisans rendered jobless.
This is where VC firm Hearth Ventures has stepped in to “reimagine Indian craftsmanship”. Founded in 2021 by Shefali Chhachhi, Vinayak Kamath, and Vipul Jain, the Mumbai-based VC firm specifically looks at investing in businesses that support Indian handicrafts and arts, as well as circular economy companies.
“We want to play the role of a “mentor fund” in the Indian handicrafts and arts sector, and we truly believe that there’s immense opportunity for success in this space,” Shefali tells YourStory.
Other than the impact on the artisan and crafts community, Hearth Ventures also looks at entrepreneurial talent, economics, scalability, and proof of potential success among other factors while deciding to invest.
Currently, it has US-based Shobitam Inc under its portfolio with an investment of $1.27 million. It is looking to make three more investments in the next two quarters.
The Interview
In an exclusive interview with YourStory, SALT Co-founders Chaitra Chidanand, Aditi Sholapurkar, and Shinjini Kumar talk about finance for women, the role of SALT in solving finance for women, and the journey of creating SALT.
<div class="externalHtml embed" contenteditable="false" data-val='’>
Editor’s Pick: What is Aave?
Aave is one of the most popular decentralised lending systems that is hosted on Ethereum blockchain, which allows decentralised apps (DApps) using smart contracts to run on top of it.
On Aave, users interact directly with the network protocol to lend, borrow, and earn interest on their crypto assets. But how does it work? Read more.
Startup Spotlight
Learning by listening
In 2017, Sandeep Singh, Pulkit Sharma, and Aankit Roy realised that news broadcasters in India can’t air content on private radio channels. They launched the audio learning app Khabri which covers local as well as national and international content, and aggregates audio content across categories.
They plan to get more paid subscribers by helping students crack various competitive exams using their content. Read more.
News & Updates
- On International Women’s Day, OYO has rolled out ‘#WomenInCtrl’ — the global hospitality tech platform’s first women-only hackathon in India. With this initiative, OYO is inviting women developers from across the country to create real-world, tech-first hospitality products for the Gurugram-headquartered company.
- As global markets plummeted amongst the Ukraine war and rising oil prices, institutional investors continue to have faith in digital finance. Funds, including Greyscale and CoinShares XBT, among others, invested $127 million in cryptocurrencies in the week between February 1 and 6.
- To mark International Women’s Day, Hyderabad-based FLO Industrial Park in partnership with the Government of Telangana, announced the launch of operations by 25 women-owned and operated units at the park, representing 16 diverse green category industries.
- A staggering 43 percent of working women have purchased products under the BNPL scheme, according to #WorkingStree, a study conducted by IndiaLends on working women in the run-up to International Women’s Day.
