Sankalp Unconvention Summit 2014 kicks off today in Mumbai drawing more than a thousand people from over 30 countries.

In its sixth year now, the event is an initiative of Intellecap’s Sankalp Forum. The first-ever impact investment landscape report for India will be unveiled, detailing how $1.6 billion has been pumped into more than 220 social enterprises since 2000.

Titled “Invest. catalyse. mainstream: The Indian impact investing story”, it will showcase how 60 per cent of the capital has been invested in 15 enterprises alone, with microfinance, healthcare, agri and clean energy sector initiatives receiving about $341 million.

“The funds go to entrepreneurs and pioneer investors targeting underserved geographies and communities as well as championing newer business models. From this kind of angel funding, which is hard to access in India, enterprises are nurtured to be potentially attractive to mainstream investment firms,” says Nisha Dutta, Director of Consulting Services at Intellecap.

This was earlier exemplified in the case of Waterlife — Aavishkaar’s angel investment of ₹1 crore in 2008 was followed by ₹22 crore from Matrix Partners India in 2011.

A detailed picture of local opportunities will be seen in Collaborative Community’s Impact Bangalore Report.

Start-up capital

As the first ever impact ecosystem study of a single city, it is an attempt at documenting the dynamics of India’s unofficial start-up capital in a way that benefits both social and commercial sectors.

“Our study looks at how the ecosystem works, what players exist, what are the opportunities and challenges, especially in early-stage entrepreneurship in Bangalore. You can actually replicate our model and study ecosystems like Singapore, Berlin or Dubai to understand them better. We designed the study to potentially aid collaborations between global ecosystems,” says Achyutha Sharma, Founder, Collaborative Community.

The Summit culminates on Friday, and includes an address by Sir Ronald Cohen, regarded by many as a pioneer of venture capital and social investment. Deloitte Monitor’s report titled “Beyond The Pioneer” will also be launched simultaneously at the Summit and at Skoll World Forum.

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