TAKE Solutions, a Chennai-based domain focused technology company, has announced that it has made a CSR contribution to the Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE) – the Technology Business Incubator of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad – for seed investment in an early stage healthcare based impact company.
The joint selection committee of CIIE and TAKE solutions chose ‘Bodhi Health Education’, a Gurgaon based start-up with a mission to empower frontline health workers through quality skill training.
CIIE partnered with Village Capital for the Last Mile Accelerator program, 2014, in which Bodhi Health Education was a winning team. Founded in 2013, Bodhi Health Education is Software as a Service (SaaS) company that provides quality training and education to frontline health workers. Apart from Village Capital, other investors in the round include Beyond Capital. The seed investment round closed at around Rs. 75 lakh
CIIE’s partnership with TAKE Solutions takes the CSR route, mandated by Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013. This will enable Bodhi leverage low cost mobile technology at health facilities to provide scalable, high quality eLearning solutions for the primary health workers. Bodhi’s seed funding round has been an instance of diverse investor cohorts converging towards promoting early-stage entrepreneurship. Apart from funding the start-up, the investors and TAKE Solutions also bring in significant strategic benefits that Bodhi can leverage in the future. These include intensive mentoring and advisory support, fund-raise support, networking and linkages, and media coverage.
Srinivasan H R, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, TAKE Solutions said, ‘We have undertaken this seed investment with the primary aim of helping India’s budding entrepreneurs set up innovative, disruptive and scalable ventures. As a niche technology player in the Life Sciences domain we found it apt to fund Bodhi Health Education; we will also further its growth with our unique position in the Life Sciences/Healthcare market’.
Shrutika Girdhar, Chief Technology Officer, Bodhi Health Education said, ‘We are excited with this support from TAKE Solutions given their deep expertise in the Life Sciences industry. Inputs from TAKE Solutions would be highly valuable in developing relevant training products and engaging with clients where Bodhi Health Education can maximize the impact to the communities.’
J Salim Vali, Vice President (Impact Investments), CIIE said, ‘We are delighted to have closed this investment round in Bodhi with TAKE Solutions Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds, Village Capital, Beyond Capital and Mr Samir Shah (a Mumbai based Angel Investor). This validates CIIE and Bodhi Health Education’s belief in its outstanding, highly effective Social Impact and the clearly defined entrepreneurial opportunity. CSR funds in seed investments have a great potential as this will encourage communication between industry and technology business incubators and can bring about many successful start-ups. Entrepreneurship will play a key role in achieving accessibility affordability and transparency in healthcare.’
