Next Bharat Ventures Portfolio Reaches 2 Mn Lives: Impact Report
Next Bharat Ventures’ Impact Report 2026 shows its 21 portfolio firms reached 20 lakh lives across rural, informal India.
From left to right_Amitabh Kant, Former CEO, Niti Aayog, Vipul Nath Jindal, Founder & CEO, Next Bharat Ventures, Masao Fujitani, Executive General Manager, New Business, Suzuki
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Next Bharat Ventures (NBV), an impact-first fund backed by capital from Japan, has released its Impact Report 2026, tracking outcomes across its 21 portfolio companies. The report records approximately 20 lakh people reached, alongside commercial growth across sectors since the fund’s investments.
NBV has committed INR 20.76 crore in seed funding, including INR 9 crore for Blackfrog Technologies, whose Emvólio vaccine carrier has reached 251,512 beneficiaries in India and has a presence in Africa. From its third cohort, the fund has invested INR 7.5 crore in eBik (electric mobility for gig workers), INR 2 crore in CIBOS (solar-powered cooking for street vendors), INR 1.26 crore in Velaan Mart (farmer-to-institutional-buyer platform), and INR 1 crore in SGB Agro (low-vibration farm equipment).
The report categorizes its portfolio across India 2 (urban informal economy — gig workers, street vendors, waste pickers) and India 3 (rural livelihood economy — farmers and artisans). Five startups in the informal economy have cumulatively impacted 14,70,610 lives with 60.05% revenue growth, while 16 startups in the rural economy have impacted 4,98,797 lives with 186.13% revenue growth. About 80% of portfolio startups are on the path to profitability, with year-on-year income growth of 75% among farmers and tribal farmers, 93% among artisans, and 25% among street vendors.
The agriculture portfolio has grown revenue by 246.66%, reaching more than 214,000 farmers, customers, and producers. Startups spanning education, accessibility, and healthcare reported 60% revenue growth while impacting 17,15,372 lives; those in arts and livelihoods reported 24.72% revenue growth, impacting 39,795 lives.
Individual portfolio companies cited in the report include Graduate Farmer, which recorded 8x revenue growth and raised monthly farmer incomes from INR 15,000 to INR 25,000; Manikstu, a goat farming platform in Odisha that grew 5x while raising farmer incomes from INR 40,000 to INR 1.5 lakh annually; Haqdarshak, which enabled welfare scheme access for about 1.4 million informal workers; Atypical Advantage, which created livelihoods for 5,000 persons with disabilities; Kadam Haat, which expanded its artisan network from 400 to 6,500 while raising incomes from INR 7,000 to INR 55,000; and MeMeraki, which scaled to 400 heritage artists with monthly incomes rising from INR 25,000 to INR 32,000.
“Impacting 2 million lives is an important milestone for us, but our ambition is to scale that impact exponentially from here,” said Vipul Nath Jindal, Founder and CEO, Next Bharat Ventures. “With Fund II, we want to back businesses that can improve the livelihoods of India’s Next Billion and address some of the most persistent gaps in access. Going forward, we will focus on entrepreneurs solving last-mile gaps in healthcare and harnessing technologies such as AI for social good.”
With its upcoming Fund II, Next Bharat Ventures plans to invest in companies working in healthcare and AI for social impact.
Next Bharat Ventures (NBV), an impact-first fund backed by capital from Japan, has released its Impact Report 2026, tracking outcomes across its 21 portfolio companies. The report records approximately 20 lakh people reached, alongside commercial growth across sectors since the fund’s investments.
NBV has committed INR 20.76 crore in seed funding, including INR 9 crore for Blackfrog Technologies, whose Emvólio vaccine carrier has reached 251,512 beneficiaries in India and has a presence in Africa. From its third cohort, the fund has invested INR 7.5 crore in eBik (electric mobility for gig workers), INR 2 crore in CIBOS (solar-powered cooking for street vendors), INR 1.26 crore in Velaan Mart (farmer-to-institutional-buyer platform), and INR 1 crore in SGB Agro (low-vibration farm equipment).
The report categorizes its portfolio across India 2 (urban informal economy — gig workers, street vendors, waste pickers) and India 3 (rural livelihood economy — farmers and artisans). Five startups in the informal economy have cumulatively impacted 14,70,610 lives with 60.05% revenue growth, while 16 startups in the rural economy have impacted 4,98,797 lives with 186.13% revenue growth. About 80% of portfolio startups are on the path to profitability, with year-on-year income growth of 75% among farmers and tribal farmers, 93% among artisans, and 25% among street vendors.
