Initiatives | Caspian Impact

Bellwether Microfinance Fund (2005-2013)

Bellwether was the first domestic pool of capital in India dedicated to providing equity and debt to start up and early stage microfinance institutions in India. Our mission with Bellwether was to be a market builder and to catalyse Microfinance in India .

Our investment objectives consciously blended financial and non-financial goals and our investors included development finance institutions as well as private impact investors.

The Fund incubated several start ups in geographically diverse and un/underserved locations – we made 6 start-up investments, 5 Series A investments and 1 Series B investment. We were an early investor in some of today’s market leaders in microfinance, including a few that have transitioned into small finance banks.

The Fund is now fully exited. Our investors in Bellwether included Gray Ghost, Triodos, FMO, and a couple of high net worth individuals.

India Financial Inclusion Fund (2008-2020)

IFIF, was established to invest growth capital in financial inclusion and - in a strategy of incremental diversification - to invest in start-up or early stage affordable housing and last mile banking.

Through this USD 90 million fund we were part of the remarkable journey of institutions inlcuding Equitas, Ujjivan, Janalakashmi, MHFC, Aptus and many more which went on to play a pivotal role in shaping the financial inclusion space in India. The Fund invested in 12 institutions across microfinance and housing finance. Today, four of these institutions are listed and three operate as Small Finance Banks (SFB).

The Fund is now fully exited and has returned capital to investors.

Our investors in IFIF included British International, FMO, Gray Ghost, responsAbility, Triodos, Norwegian Microfinance Initiative, and others.

Caspian Debt (2013-2025)

In 2013, after two limited life equity funds, we pivoted to debt and to an operating company. This was an opportunistic broadening of our strategy to address the need for debt among fast growing, early stage, impact enterprises that are otherwise compelled to grow their businesses through dilutive equity.

While we continued our focus on Financial Inclusion, SME Finance and Affordable Housing - sectors that we had significant investment experience in - we added three new sectors, viz. Food & Agriculture, Clean Energy, and Healthcare. Investors in Caspian Debt include Gray Ghost, FMO, Triodos, Samridhi Fund (SIDBI). The company was also supported by crucial debt and guarantee partnerships including with US DFC and USAID.

In the twelve years that Caspian Debt has been active, it has built a reputation as a leader in impact debt, having disbursed approximately INR 4,000 Cr to more than 250 portfolio companies.

With effect from November 1, 2025, Caspian Debt is Udhyam Debt, following its merger into BlackSoil Capital Pvt. Ltd. This strategic combination of two strong credit institutions will ensure achieve scale and efficiency in the continued mission to provide flexible and alternative credit solutions to underserved new economy businesses.

Caspian is a shareholder in the merged entity.

Caspian SME Impact Fund

Our fourth fund, the SME Impact Fund, which was set up in 2017, invests in the equity of innovative SMEs engaged in Food & Agriculture, Clean Energy, and Financial Services. In our investment phase, we looked for companies that build or enable efficient access to high quality essential services, or access to markets for small producers, or access to finance for micro-enterprises.

Caspian Leap for Agriculture Fund (LeAF)

With over 12 years of actively engaging in the food and agriculture sector, we set up the LeAF Fund to support innovations and break-through processes/technologies in the food & agriculture sector by providing risk capital and technical assistance to primarily early-stage (seed and pre-series A) companies. The Fund seeks to facilitate positive impact in terms of increased income for the farmers, quality food produced with improved yields, improved agricultural infrastructure and improved processing facilities.

Eligible institutions for the Fund include Enterprises engaged in any part of the Food & Agriculture business supply and value chain with a focus on sustainable and socially responsible practices including farming, farming inputs, sourcing, transport, processing, marketing, branding, retailing, and consumption.

Direct Investments

We invest directly from our balance sheet in companies that are solving, at scale, a social or environmental problem. We look for a novel idea, founder conviction, financial discipline, and strong execution capabilities. We take a sector agnostic approach under this initiative and generally invest in growth stage funding rounds led by institutional Investors. Revenue should ideally be in the scale-up mode with positive unit economics and a clear path to enterprise level profitability.

Fund of Fund Investments

We take Limited Partner positions in funds that invest in impact sectors in India. We back fund managers, including first time fund managers with a preference for women fund managers,. We look for a clear investment thesis, proven investment track record, demonstrated execution capabilities. We prefer to invest in the second closing and can consider a first close alongside an anchor investor.