1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Eva Yazhari, General Partner at Beyond Capital Ventures (Part 1)

Eva Yazhari, General Partner at Beyond Capital Ventures, discusses Impact Investing in Africa and India.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself and Beyond Capital Ventures. Tell us a bit about your background and what you’re trying to do with Beyond Capital.

Eva Yazhari: My background is working on Wall Street. I worked in the hedge fund industry over 10 years ago. I left with the intention to return to some family roots centered around living and working in Africa. I wanted to focus on emerging markets and the impact and returns that can be created in emerging markets.

We’re a seed and Series A venture. We fund companies that are innovating around need-to-haves led by, what we call, conscious leaders in India and East Africa. We’ve got a diversified portfolio of businesses which have strong return potentials but also have potential to generate impact.

We’re on our second fund and we are rolling forward with starting our initial investment period. Our general investment thesis is centered around the early stages and making sure that founders get the capital that they need to be able to grow and scale.

Sramana Mitra: You started off by focusing on geography. Is that one of the key organizing principles of how you’re thinking about investment?

Eva Yazhari: Yes, it is. We are investing in two of the top four emerging markets globally. That is a strategic integration. While we work very hands-on with the companies in our portfolio, what we’ve realized is that there is a need for capital and products that are more diversified when it comes to investors. That’s why we’ve created this turnkey solution.

I get asked all the time if I would invest in Latin America or other parts of Asia. The answer is no. We’ve been an expert for the past decade having built our first fund of 11 investments in these markets.

Sramana Mitra: What is the size of the fund?

Eva Yazhari: We are raising $30 million.

Sramana Mitra: The previous fund was?

Eva Yazhari: The previous fund was smaller. It was a pilot portfolio of about a million.

Sramana Mitra: You’re raising $30 million and you have so far deployed a million.

Eva Yazhari: We’re raising $30 million. We’ve already raised a certain amount, but due to SEC regulations, I can’t share that number.

Sramana Mitra: You’ve already started to deploy the second fund.

Eva Yazhari: Correct.

Sramana Mitra: Talk about three of four of your portfolio companies to illustrate the way you think about investments. Specifically, what did you see in them that made you write the check? What kind of check sizes are you writing? What stage requirements do you have?

Eva Yazhari: I’ll tell you the narrative around one of our investments called Frontier Market which is a last-mile distribution platform based in India focused on rural last mile and working with female agent networks who can provide access to last-mile consumers.

The company started out distributing solar products and renewable energy products. In 2012, we had looked at many standalone solar lantern products, but it was just a one-product play. We decided that we didn’t want to take on that risk. We have over a hundred sourcing and co-investment partners. Through that network, we were able to find Ajaita Shah, the CEO of Frontier Markets.

Of course, we always look for some initial business traction. We’re not investing in pre-revenue. It’s post-revenue. We look for early validation that customers are willing to pay whether that’s B2B, B2B2C, or B2C directly. We look for some elements of strength of customer retention and engagement. This was very early. We invested in the seed round of Frontier Markets.

What it also possessed was a very strong leader who we knew we could bet on. I joked that I’ve never been in a room with Ajaita where she hasn’t walked out and somebody whispered in my ear, “How can I invest in her company?” The reasons for traction is also very important. We wrote a smaller check back then. Right now, our sweet spot is between $250,000 and $700,000 in seed, and then $400,000 and $1.1 million in Series A.

One more example is Kasha. It’s a women’s health e-commerce platform in Africa. It’s becoming Africa’s leading FemTech company. We did invest in the seed round. In addition to validating the market around lacking access to women’s health, destigmatizing women’s health products, and using technology in order to reach women to buy the things they need every month, we really like the leader.

We believe that conscious leaders are the secret sauce to impact investing. Meaning, a leader who’s thinking about all stakeholders. Joanna Bichsel, the CEO of Kasha, has proven that being able to think not just about your customers and your shareholders, but also your employees and the government she has worked with is a winning strategy for companies in emerging markets.

There are so many external factors. It’s not only a risk-mitigation tool that we think is critical. It’s also a mindset that helps companies unlock value in authentic ways.

This segment is part 1 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Eva Yazhari, General Partner at Beyond Capital Ventures
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