Kevin Iraheta Sousa
Our investment in Upaya Social Ventures
India faces a dual crisis: in 2022, more than 75 million people lived in extreme poverty, defined as less than $3 a day, while escalating climate risks threatened the country’s sustainable development path according to the World Bank. Addressing these challenges requires solutions that create pathways to formal, dignified employment. Many promising sectors such as waste management, renewable energy, rural manufacturing, and agri-processing remain underfunded.
Meanwhile, entrepreneurial support infrastructure is minimal with an inefficient accelerator-to-investment pipeline resulting in a gap in small businesses financing. These businesses are too large for microfinance, too risky for banks, and not attractive enough for venture capital, contributing to an estimated $5.7 trillion global small business financing gap (2019), according to the IFC–World Bank MSME Finance Gap report from March 2025. This gap leads to a critical shortage of capital for job-creating enterprises with proven impact.
Why Upaya Social Ventures?
The Autodesk Foundation is proud to include Upaya Social Ventures in our Work & Prosperity portfolio. Founded in 2011, Upaya’s mission is to create dignified jobs for people in India living in extreme poverty. To date, Upaya has accelerated 73 companies and facilitated over 72,000 dignified jobs across 51 investees.
Upaya addresses India’s “missing middle” by leveraging innovative financing mechanisms, notably its Pool of Recoverable Grant (PRG) fund model. This approach recycles philanthropic capital, bridging the gap between grants and commercial investment. By 2018, after years of investing and running its accelerator, Upaya learned that its entrepreneurs needed flexible early growth capital to scale its impact, which led it to pioneer the PRG model with PRG I and later PRG II in 2022. The success of PRG I and PRG II—evidenced by recycled capital, strong follow-on funding, and significant job creation—paves the way for PRG III to expand this evergreen model. Upaya aims to generate 300,000 dignified jobs by 2030 through supporting over 100 businesses with its accelerator programs and three PRG funds.
Alongside capital, Upaya offers high-touch services that many enterprises lack, including technical assistance in investment readiness, financial systems, impact measurement, and fundraising. Its accelerator provides tailored advisory, access to networks, and direct pathways to funding. Its impact measurement practices emphasize dignified work outcomes, allowing enterprises to accurately quantify its social return on investment. These comprehensive services are vital in India’s ecosystem, helping de-risk companies, unlock follow-on funding and turn business viability into job creation at scale across rural manufacturing, agriculture, textiles, and waste circularity.
“Our approach to supporting entrepreneurs whose enterprises are scaling and investing in dignified work across sectors such as climate resilience, circular economy, mobility, and manufacturing aligns with Autodesk Foundation’s mission and expertise. We’re fortunate that our portfolio organizations can benefit from this funding, along with access to Autodesk technology.”
– Shruti Goel, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Upaya Social Ventures
Upaya’s team and portfolio companies can leverage Autodesk’s technical expertise to strengthen its organizations and operations. This includes access to Autodesk software, customized training, and pro bono consulting from Autodesk employees.
Learn more about Upaya’s work.