Villgro's Financing Solutions Empower 106 Women Micro-Entrepreneurs with Business Loans

By: WE staff | Wednesday, 2 April 2025

• Villgro announces impact as FY 2025-26 begins 
• 106 women micro-entrepreneurs from across India availing business loans 
• Innovative financing solutions provided by Villgro in conjunction with its partners 

With the commencement of FY 2025-26, a social enterprise incubator, Villgro has announced that its innovative financing solutions have allowed 106 women micro-entrepreneurs across the length and breadth of India to access business loans, as per the partner organizations.

Villgro accentuates the immediacy of constructing a supportive ecosystem for women entrepreneurs in India, bolstering the government initiatives in the arenas of credit access, business formalization, and skills training. One of the foremost social enterprise incubators, Villgro has been steadfastly working to facilitate the easy access of credit and innovative financing options for women micro-entrepreneurs across the nation.

In the beginning of FY 2025-26, Villgro announced that its financing initiatives, supplemented by the partner organizations, have been able to help 106 women micro-entrepreneurs in India access business loans to date. By granting funding to those considered ‘unbankable,' these initiatives help not only in building women-led businesses but also build an inclusive financial ecosystem that strengthens livelihoods and socioeconomic impact in the long run.

According to the Beyond the Numbers report by Villgro, women entrepreneurs repay their loans at a high rate, whereas only 5 percent of total commercial financing goes to them. There are continued systematic barriers to their access to finance, including risk perceptions, lack of collateral, and gender norms. In tandem with these initiatives, Villgro addresses India's gender financing gap by delivering gender-sensitive credit solutions, peer-to-peer lending, and alternative financing models.

 Vibha Sharma, Lead - Impact Finance at Villgro, noted that unavailability of capital continues to be a major constraint in the functioning of many women micro-entrepreneurs, restricting their ability to scale, acquire improved technologies, and penetrate other markets.

In partnership with ecosystem players, Villgro is promoting key initiatives to advance women entrepreneurship. Under one such program, Affordable Credit for Solar-Powered Income Generating Opportunities, Villgro has joined hands with Ashv Finance to allow DD Solar's solar-powered cooling solutions to be made available for rural women micro-entrepreneurs working in the fisheries value chain.

An end-user loan facility with First Loss Default Guarantee (FLDG) covering 25 percent of potential loan losses has opened over ₹1 crore in credit funding for underserved communities; so far, the program has disbursed 362 loans for 750 solar refrigeration units, with a whopping 44 percent of loans going to women-most of whom were first-time borrowers. Good repayment behavior with merely 6 percent non-performing asset rate under this scheme has given fillip to fish procurement planning, resulting in minimized loss and maximized income. The success of the program has encouraged Ashv Finance to develop a second loan scheme with reduced FLDG requirements.

The other significant impact-initiatives are the Peer-to-Peer Lending for Livelihood Opportunities, as about 50 percent of farmers in India find it hard to take crediting this regard, Villgro joined hands with Rang De, the peer-to-peer lending platform that assists farmers with low-interest, hassle-free credit for the adoption of distributed renewable energy (DRE) technologies. The initiative will allow women farmers to invest in climate-smart technologies that will maximize their income and productivity for sustainable agriculture.

Villgro considers financial empowerment of women as paramount; ensuring they have access to finance that enables them in turn to acquire income-generating assets and thereby optimize their livelihoods. Villgro continues to promote and be a voice for financial inclusion for women in front of policymakers, investors, and financial institutions to enable them to recognize the importance of investing in women-led businesses. Such investments shall not just accrue financial returns, but also bring about significant socio-economic returns for a more inclusive and equitable economy for all.