Alchemy of Inclusion: The Audacity of Scaling Rural Prosperity with Ajaita Shah
In this episode of Be & Think in the House of Trust, Servane sits down with Ajaita Shah, passionate enabler, problem solver, critical thinker, game changer and the visionary leader behind Frontier Markets, a financial inclusion powerhouse transforming lives in rural India.
They delve into the challenges and triumphs of reaching underserved communities, the role of technology in driving change, and Ajaita’s ambitious plans for the future.
Highlights in this episode
- Sharing her approach to finding calm amidst a busy life, Ajaita emphasises the importance of self-centring through nature and human connection.
- Ajaita explains how Frontier Markets leverages technology and a network of 40,000 women entrepreneurs to deliver essential services to rural communities, thinking end-to-end enablement.
- She discusses the challenges of scaling impact and the birth of her investment initiative, the She Leads Impact Fund, aimed at supporting social enterprises.
- Listen to her vision and expected feelings for the future including her plans to unlock billions of dollars for impact investing and empower millions of people through financial inclusion.
Useful Links
Ajaita Shah on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frontiermarkets
Frontier Markets https://frontiermkts.com
Beyond Capital Ventures https://beyondcapitalventures.com/
She Leads Bharat https://www.frontiermkts.com/she-leads-bharat
Connect with Servane:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/servanemouazan/
Website: https://servanemouazan.co.uk
Subscribe to Conscious Innovation updates:
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Transcript
Welcome to the house of Trust. My name is Servane
Servane Mouazan:Mouazan and in each episode I am sharing
Servane Mouazan:a thinking moment with an inspiring leader who loves to
Servane Mouazan:invest in social and environmental change.
Servane Mouazan:What they all have in common is a mission that tells
Servane Mouazan:people on the planet you matter. And
Servane Mouazan:today, I'm, um, thrilled to welcome Ajaita Shah.
Servane Mouazan:She is the alchemist turning market forces
Servane Mouazan:into gold for the underserved.
Servane Mouazan:As the founder and CEO of Frontier
Servane Mouazan:Markets, she has built a financial inclusion
Servane Mouazan:powerhouse, channeling capital
Servane Mouazan:to remote corners of India.
Servane Mouazan:Here's the picture. Think last mile
Servane Mouazan:microfinance at cutting edge technology. Tens of
Servane Mouazan:thousands of empowered rural entrepreneurs. And she'll tell us
Servane Mouazan:more about this and more. Uh,
Servane Mouazan:reaching five millions of women who can now
Servane Mouazan:access essential solutions and financing,
Servane Mouazan:resulting in a substantial $30 million in
Servane Mouazan:income. I hope I've got my figures right. So
Servane Mouazan:we're talking about inclusive growth here. Trust
Servane Mouazan:and positive impact. For real. Are you
Servane Mouazan:ready for some serious scale thinking? So, here we
Servane Mouazan:go.
Servane Mouazan:Hello, Ajaita. Hi.
Servane Mouazan:What an honor to have you in the house of trust here on my
Servane Mouazan:virtual sofa. So we're going a long way
Servane Mouazan:back, uh, but I can't assume that
Servane Mouazan:everybody that will listen to the podcast knows you.
Servane Mouazan:It's probably not the case, but I don't know,
Servane Mouazan:just in case, if there's one or two people who don't know you,
Servane Mouazan:you're a doer, an activator, a visionary, a connector.
Servane Mouazan:Ah, and I just wonder, what do you
Servane Mouazan:most need to arrive to a state of
Servane Mouazan:calm and ease amidst, um,
Servane Mouazan:a ton of things that you're doing?
Ajaita Shah:So first of all, it's super fun to be in this
Ajaita Shah:house of trust and lovely to always hang out with you
Ajaita Shah:servants. So thank you for having me,
Ajaita Shah:um, connect your doer.
Ajaita Shah:Yeah, there's a lot of, it's a lot of, it's a lot of
Ajaita Shah:roles. I would say that,
Ajaita Shah:um, the main thing that I do to try
Ajaita Shah:to, um, ease and be in
Ajaita Shah:the position I am is, uh, center
Ajaita Shah:myself, um, around nature
Ajaita Shah:and uh, the communities that I work with.
Ajaita Shah:Um, being able to feel
Ajaita Shah:joy, um, by being
Ajaita Shah:able to connect with the women and the leaders that we
Ajaita Shah:work with has been, ah, very powerful and
Ajaita Shah:centering and calming and also getting a
Ajaita Shah:chance to be around nature. Um,
Ajaita Shah:rural villages, um, they're gorgeous.
Ajaita Shah:And so getting a chance to be present in that and
Ajaita Shah:truly understanding the value of the work that we
Ajaita Shah:do, um, is coming.
Servane Mouazan:Mhm. So I, ah, started with, by
Servane Mouazan:giving some objectives already or how I see you, uh,
Servane Mouazan:do or activate a visionary connector. And I'm going to stop there
Servane Mouazan:because I'll be there next week. But in your own
Servane Mouazan:words, what are the sort of the
Servane Mouazan:objectives or the qualifiers that
Servane Mouazan:do you think make m who you are? What words are
Servane Mouazan:coming up to you? If I ask you who are you? And
Servane Mouazan:you just give me up to five words, Max, what would you
Servane Mouazan:say?
Ajaita Shah:I'm a passionate enabler, a
Ajaita Shah:problem solver, a critical
Ajaita Shah:thinker. Um, I call it game
Ajaita Shah:changer. Um, and,
Ajaita Shah:uh, a disruptive investor.
Servane Mouazan:If we were to explain again what frontier
Servane Mouazan:markets is
Servane Mouazan:and how you operate the shift from
Servane Mouazan:doing to enabling, that's something that stays with
Servane Mouazan:me all the time. And I just want to hear from
Servane Mouazan:you in your own words, Ajaita
Ajaita Shah:Uh, so if it helps, I'd love to
Ajaita Shah:give the audience just context,
Ajaita Shah:uh, around what is it that we do. But
Ajaita Shah:why? And so when we're thinking
Ajaita Shah:about, um, the work in India, there are
Ajaita Shah:800 million people that live in
Ajaita Shah:rural villages across a subcontinent
Ajaita Shah:that is massive. So 700,000 villages.
Ajaita Shah:And these are always big, daunting numbers when people hear
Ajaita Shah:it. These are people that serve the world
Ajaita Shah:because they are farmers, they're women, they're true,
Ajaita Shah:they're citizens, but they're unfortunately
Ajaita Shah:not seen or heard, and unfortunately
Ajaita Shah:do not access, um, the services
Ajaita Shah:that you and I are able to
Ajaita Shah:access on a regular basis on our phones. Right? You
Ajaita Shah:know, we are Amazon people, or we are
Ajaita Shah:any blinket or whatever platform people,
Ajaita Shah:because we're used to getting, um,
Ajaita Shah:anything that we need at the doorstep of where we live. Now,
Ajaita Shah:imagine, um, this rural group, which
Ajaita Shah:is massive in terms of its population
Ajaita Shah:size. They're not getting that. They're not
Ajaita Shah:getting any services that they need. Now, rural India needs a lot of
Ajaita Shah:things, right? They need electrification, they need access to
Ajaita Shah:financial services, they need access to better
Ajaita Shah:agricultural systems. They need access to clean energy
Ajaita Shah:solutions, they need access to quality
Ajaita Shah:healthcare. They need access to sanitary napkins.
Servane Mouazan:Hm.
Ajaita Shah:So how do you help them be
Ajaita Shah:seen in terms of helping them understand,
Ajaita Shah:um, a be seen so the world can understand who they are. But
Ajaita Shah:also how do you help understand their needs so you can actually
Ajaita Shah:deliver those services in a way that actually creates
Ajaita Shah:power? Because I see that when
Ajaita Shah:people get what they need and what they want when they need it,
Ajaita Shah:brilliance happens, right? People are able to be
Ajaita Shah:prosperous. They're not worrying about things. They're being more
Ajaita Shah:effective. So frontier markets was designed to really serve that
Ajaita Shah:purpose. We've become the largest platform that connects
Ajaita Shah:products and services to people. But the way that we do
Ajaita Shah:it is through the lens of the
Ajaita Shah:people. So we essentially spend
Ajaita Shah:time, through our technology to understand who these people
Ajaita Shah:are and what they need. And then basis that technology
Ajaita Shah:platform, we facilitate these services
Ajaita Shah:to get them to where they actually live.
Ajaita Shah:Now, the niche of what we do, which is what we've been always famous for, is the
Ajaita Shah:question people ask is how. So the, how
Ajaita Shah:is really women in technology? We've been able to
Ajaita Shah:build this incredible force of
Ajaita Shah:40,000 rural women
Ajaita Shah:businesses who are using our technology to
Ajaita Shah:become the facilitator of services to their
Ajaita Shah:villages. Um, they're the ones that connect us
Ajaita Shah:to families, they're the ones that help us understand who people
Ajaita Shah:are. And through the technology that we've created, which is the
Ajaita Shah:Medi Sahili app, they're able to then facilitate
Ajaita Shah:the marketplace or actually get these services to the
Ajaita Shah:last mile. Um, today, 40,000 women
Ajaita Shah:businesses, um, have helped over now 3
Ajaita Shah:million families get access to over 100 million
Ajaita Shah:solutions for what they need. And it
Ajaita Shah:ranges through all these different services that
Ajaita Shah:I just mentioned, um, which is beautiful, because not
Ajaita Shah:only are you driving, um, impactful change for the
Ajaita Shah:rural communities that need these services, but these women
Ajaita Shah:are incredible influencers and entrepreneurs that have earned
Ajaita Shah:money and are saving their families from
Ajaita Shah:future disasters because they have money.
Servane Mouazan:So do you remember when there was Covid, we talked, we had that
Servane Mouazan:long discussion that resulted in a series of blogs
Servane Mouazan:that explained the situation of
Servane Mouazan:what, uh, a global event like
Servane Mouazan:that can impact how it impacts
Servane Mouazan:these women, for instance, on the ground.
Servane Mouazan:Are you happy to give us a little example, just a short
Servane Mouazan:example of how they were affected in an instance
Servane Mouazan:like Covid, uh, in these remote
Servane Mouazan:places. And what is the insight that
Servane Mouazan:you gain technically and how the, um, frontier
Servane Mouazan:market pivoted after that?
Ajaita Shah:So, during COVID one of the most important things that
Ajaita Shah:happened in India was that there was a lockdown. So
Ajaita Shah:ultimately, people were supposed to stay at home.
Ajaita Shah:What that means for rural villages is that they weren't even
Ajaita Shah:accessing rice or,
Ajaita Shah:you know, sugar, or, you know, basic essential
Ajaita Shah:foods that they needed on a supply chain perspective.
Ajaita Shah:Uh, and when things were shutting down, no one
Ajaita Shah:knew how to help them to get that access. And
Ajaita Shah:so we were lucky because our
Ajaita Shah:women entrepreneurs, through their technology, could
Ajaita Shah:tell us all the problems that were happening in that village.
Ajaita Shah:People need masks, people
Ajaita Shah:need medicine, people need
Ajaita Shah:access to, like I said, commodities. And,
Ajaita Shah:um, it turned out that we knew that that was true
Ajaita Shah:for in our, where we were operating, we operate in like
Ajaita Shah:5000 villages today. Back then, it was probably around
Ajaita Shah:2000 villages. Um, that meant that
Ajaita Shah:100,000 to 200,000 people needed
Ajaita Shah:things. And so what frontier markets was able
Ajaita Shah:to do was quickly take that data that was coming
Ajaita Shah:in from these women through the tech and be
Ajaita Shah:able to then send that message across to all the
Ajaita Shah:different companies. So whether it was an FMCG company,
Ajaita Shah:whether it was a healthcare provider, whether it was someone that was
Ajaita Shah:actually working on vaccinations, how do we draw
Ajaita Shah:them to come through our platform to help these people get what they
Ajaita Shah:needed? And we successfully were able to make that
Ajaita Shah:happen because these women were able to drive that
Ajaita Shah:leadership in helping us understand
Ajaita Shah:what people needed at the time that they needed it. And how do
Ajaita Shah:we facilitate that? Um, I think that,
Ajaita Shah:generally speaking, um, the pivot for
Ajaita Shah:us, um, was
Ajaita Shah:a reality check that, as always,
Ajaita Shah:our mission was never to just focus on one
Ajaita Shah:intervention to help a rural family. It was always
Ajaita Shah:to solve problems. So we call ourselves
Ajaita Shah:Sadhguru, or easy life, because our whole
Ajaita Shah:idea is that if you spend the time to understand the challenges of
Ajaita Shah:people, you can actually aggregate those solutions to
Ajaita Shah:address those challenges. And, um, at the
Ajaita Shah:time, from COVID we learned that we
Ajaita Shah:actually can really drive solutions for everything.
Ajaita Shah:So we went from being a clean energy
Ajaita Shah:access company, to a digital
Ajaita Shah:payments company, to a healthcare company,
Ajaita Shah:to a FMCG company, to a commerce
Ajaita Shah:company in a way that actually
Ajaita Shah:ultimately, um, made us become
Ajaita Shah:the everything solution. So when we see it, we
Ajaita Shah:go for a rural customer.
Ajaita Shah:They see us as frontier markets is the everything
Ajaita Shah:for everyone solution. And for,
Ajaita Shah:um, service providers like companies, they see
Ajaita Shah:frontier markets as the moat or the
Ajaita Shah:platform to access rural consumers to get their
Ajaita Shah:services in fast.
Servane Mouazan:So tell me, Ajaita when all of these
Servane Mouazan:happened of course, as, uh, we tell the story now, it
Servane Mouazan:seems like seamless well, package...
Servane Mouazan:I know you deliver on the ground, but there were some actors, like
Servane Mouazan:maybe finance providers, who had
Servane Mouazan:some issues with following
Servane Mouazan:the speed of thoughts and the necessity of
Servane Mouazan:acting fast. What would you have loved
Servane Mouazan:to see them do or think
Servane Mouazan:differently?
Ajaita Shah:Yeah, I think it's always interesting to be a social
Ajaita Shah:business. So when you're a social business,
Ajaita Shah:you still have to cater to business
Ajaita Shah:principles of, uh, returns for your
Ajaita Shah:investors, raise a lot of money, create profitability, do all
Ajaita Shah:of that. But at the same time, because you're a social
Ajaita Shah:business, you're focusing on impact and you're focusing
Ajaita Shah:on realities in a very different way. So, um,
Ajaita Shah:our mission ultimately always was to listen to
Ajaita Shah:the rural household's needs. And when you're working in
Ajaita Shah:rural India, there's a lot of chaos that
Ajaita Shah:happens and calamities that happen. So
Ajaita Shah:you might have had a great business plan or a great financial
Ajaita Shah:model, but at the end of the day, what you put on paper
Ajaita Shah:is not necessarily what you execute in reality.
Ajaita Shah:And because of the calamities that come through.
Ajaita Shah:And so fundamentally, I think
Ajaita Shah:that the challenge that we faced was that the
Ajaita Shah:financiers that we were working with,
Ajaita Shah:uh, weren't ready to be as innovative or as
Ajaita Shah:reactive as we needed them. So when we
Ajaita Shah:needed money the most to be able to
Ajaita Shah:retain or salvage the chaos, um,
Ajaita Shah:it was a struggle. And, uh, it
Ajaita Shah:was unfortunate because it's not that
Ajaita Shah:the company wasn't doing well, it was
Ajaita Shah:that the ecosystem didn't understand the realities on the
Ajaita Shah:ground. So there was a mismatch or a disconnect
Ajaita Shah:between what the use of funds would do
Ajaita Shah:to help actually build and sustain a business, whereas
Ajaita Shah:where investors stood in terms of their own
Ajaita Shah:thesis around what they should be investing in.
Ajaita Shah:And I think that was definitely a challenging period.
Ajaita Shah:It's actually the reason why I end up becoming an investor
Ajaita Shah:myself, because, um, I realized that
Ajaita Shah:I think this is probably what's famous about me, right? When I
Ajaita Shah:see a problem, I decide to take it on
Ajaita Shah:myself and really try to then
Ajaita Shah:demonstrate and navigate to the world like, what is
Ajaita Shah:responsible finance? How do you bring in the
Ajaita Shah:right kind of money at the right time for the needs? And how do you
Ajaita Shah:ensure that you're an investor that truly
Ajaita Shah:understands the market or the people or the
Ajaita Shah:impact, such that you take equal accountability
Ajaita Shah:for whom you're investing in and why
Ajaita Shah:they. And how do you trust them to kind of build that? And
Ajaita Shah:so, um, it was a fun
Ajaita Shah:journey. Um, luckily, I will say, while it was
Ajaita Shah:a struggle, I have to say I'm
Ajaita Shah:extremely grateful for my existing investors. I mean, it's an
Ajaita Shah:entire rolodex of them, but
Ajaita Shah:they always stepped up. So in
Ajaita Shah:every moment of chaos, every time,
Ajaita Shah:their initial reaction would be, please go outside of the
Ajaita Shah:market and get money from outside. But
Ajaita Shah:actually, um, ultimately, they were the ones
Ajaita Shah:that always stepped up. And it's one of the reasons why we are
Ajaita Shah:continuing to thrive today, though.
Ajaita Shah:Jesus. There are like a lot of problems
Ajaita Shah:and a lot of struggles on the way.
Servane Mouazan:Yeah. So your
Servane Mouazan:investors stepped up and now you're one of them.
Servane Mouazan:Tell me, what is the
Servane Mouazan:genesis of that? I mean, you just started to telling,
Servane Mouazan:but what is it, what's cooking now
Servane Mouazan:for your investment initiative?
Ajaita Shah:Yeah. So, and this kind of is part of the, uh,
Ajaita Shah:doing to enabling journey. Right. And I
Ajaita Shah:think that, um, you know, frontier Markets today has
Ajaita Shah:established a very strong footprint in its work.
Ajaita Shah:And we're one of the leading organizations to
Ajaita Shah:show what, what does it mean to truly
Ajaita Shah:invest in women and drive a, uh, business
Ajaita Shah:profitably. And, um, we've done it at
Ajaita Shah:a pretty significant scale. But if you look at
Ajaita Shah:this with the lens of India, let alone the
Ajaita Shah:lens globally, especially in the global south,
Ajaita Shah:what we've done is a tiny dent of what needs to
Ajaita Shah:happen. And so I went down
Ajaita Shah:this journey of, uh, systems change and trying to
Ajaita Shah:understand what would it mean if we stopped
Ajaita Shah:focusing on doing everything ourselves, but actually helping
Ajaita Shah:others build their capacity to
Ajaita Shah:replicate what we believe is a
Ajaita Shah:successful model that can enable more impact
Ajaita Shah:at scale. And so going down that
Ajaita Shah:journey, it was interesting to kind of meet so many
Ajaita Shah:other organizations who, frankly, were maybe, maybe
Ajaita Shah:seven or eight years behind frontier markets, even though I've
Ajaita Shah:been around for 13 years. Right. Kind of crazy when you think about
Ajaita Shah:it. But, um, what they needed was
Ajaita Shah:always consistently the same thing. They needed a business model,
Ajaita Shah:they needed access to technology, they needed
Ajaita Shah:catalytic capital to, like, help experiment and do
Ajaita Shah:certain things to make things happen. And they needed, um,
Ajaita Shah:a platform to help them demonstrate their
Ajaita Shah:value. And that's really what drove me
Ajaita Shah:to understand. Then I asked myself that question, where are
Ajaita Shah:the investors for this? Who are the investors that are
Ajaita Shah:understanding how to design this, to create that kind of
Ajaita Shah:scale? And, um, when I realized that it
Ajaita Shah:was limited, that there's a big gap in
Ajaita Shah:terms of the market, of where capital sits and what capital
Ajaita Shah:is used for, and what is our understanding
Ajaita Shah:of grant capital versus debt, capital
Ajaita Shah:versus investments. I went down that journey to say,
Ajaita Shah:what if I built it myself? So,
Ajaita Shah:using. Because I love building things. No,
Ajaita Shah:don't you? Right,
Ajaita Shah:clearly. So, uh, yeah, so I. I had a
Ajaita Shah:foundation that I had created right around the time
Ajaita Shah:that I actually created frontier markets. I just never knew what the
Ajaita Shah:foundation's role or goal
Ajaita Shah:would be, but I learned. And so, um,
Ajaita Shah:about three or four years ago, I decided
Ajaita Shah:to do two things. One was turn
Ajaita Shah:my foundation into an impact fund, which is
Ajaita Shah:essentially the facility that
Ajaita Shah:leverages this catalytic money to really support
Ajaita Shah:the organizations that I, frankly, can resonate
Ajaita Shah:more with and any other investor that exists, because I
Ajaita Shah:understand this market and I understand the DNA of
Ajaita Shah:these entrepreneurs in a very different way, and
Ajaita Shah:incubate them and help them get technology and use that money
Ajaita Shah:to unlock their potential. And so it's called
Ajaita Shah:the she leads impact fund, because, of course, we have an intense
Ajaita Shah:gender lens. So we always say that,
Ajaita Shah:how can we help you improve your gender
Ajaita Shah:footprint, but also, how can we help you be seen in
Ajaita Shah:scale? So, the same philosophy that I
Ajaita Shah:had about rural consumers, I've now been applying it
Ajaita Shah:to organizations in a very interesting way of
Ajaita Shah:how do we help you be seen, how do we help you ease your
Ajaita Shah:life and how do we help you get what you need to be
Ajaita Shah:successful? And that's really where the impact
Ajaita Shah:fund, um, sits. And then the second thing that I did
Ajaita Shah:was I became a board, a, uh, general partner
Ajaita Shah:to, uh, some of my favorite impact funds.
Ajaita Shah:And, um, you know, so beyond capital ventures,
Ajaita Shah:for example, is one of my favorite impact funds. And Eva
Ajaita Shah:Yazari is an amazing friend and an amazing
Ajaita Shah:mentor and also an investor of frontier markets.
Ajaita Shah:But it's incredible to then see your
Ajaita Shah:own evolution as a leader. And
Ajaita Shah:now, advising, um,
Ajaita Shah:funds to understand how to make better
Ajaita Shah:deal decisions, how to better leverage capital
Ajaita Shah:and how to better bring in a gender lens into
Ajaita Shah:their entire portfolio has kind of been, become my
Ajaita Shah:passion. Those are my, that's the shift.
Ajaita Shah:So, uh, today, frontier markets, through the foundation,
Ajaita Shah:is able to help organizations across India,
Ajaita Shah:but actually the global south replicate
Ajaita Shah:success. And at the same time, we're able
Ajaita Shah:to show where the role of capital can come in and
Ajaita Shah:innovate. So through the fund, we also
Ajaita Shah:launched many initiatives around gender and
Ajaita Shah:climate, around gender and financial inclusion, around
Ajaita Shah:gender equality, because fundamentally, we believe
Ajaita Shah:you need to bring in catalytic
Ajaita Shah:money to demonstrate the ability for people to come together.
Ajaita Shah:Um, it's been super exciting. I think it was. I
Ajaita Shah:think two years ago we launched, it brought in about
Ajaita Shah:like $3 million of capital, but we helped
Ajaita Shah:organizations unlock almost 30 to 40, 50,
Ajaita Shah:no, $30 million of, uh,
Ajaita Shah:investments, um, because of the work that we
Ajaita Shah:were able to do. So for me, everything's about leveraging.
Ajaita Shah:So it was the best way to kind of get things moving. So ten
Ajaita Shah:x capital but also 100 x impact of
Ajaita Shah:these organizations being able to drive the change they do.
Servane Mouazan:So, on top of all the objectives that we threw
Servane Mouazan:at the beginning, there is a puzzle completer that's
Servane Mouazan:coming up here.
Ajaita Shah:Puzzle completer, you're right, I like complex things
Ajaita Shah:and fixing them.
Servane Mouazan:Yeah. So you're talking about your
Servane Mouazan:route, your journey, your leadership journey. And I
Servane Mouazan:wondered, what is your next
Servane Mouazan:learning challenge on this journey? As Alita,
Servane Mouazan:that is the, uh, I'm.
Ajaita Shah:Gonna say billion dollar question. It's not even a million dollar question,
Ajaita Shah:it's the billion dollar question.
Servane Mouazan:Oh, I didn't expect less from you.
Ajaita Shah:Um, just as a reflection,
Ajaita Shah:thirties to forties was for
Ajaita Shah:me a place where I needed to be the
Ajaita Shah:entrepreneur. Design solutions,
Ajaita Shah:demonstrate, hustle and react. It was a very
Ajaita Shah:interesting journey to get to where I was and
Ajaita Shah:proudly by 38, 39
Ajaita Shah:demonstrate that in a really important way.
Ajaita Shah:Turning 40, literally just like eight days
Ajaita Shah:ago. Um, I think about what is
Ajaita Shah:my next decade of, um, 40 to 50.
Ajaita Shah:So a couple of things that always come to mind. I think about
Ajaita Shah:climate a lot in a very different lens. I think
Ajaita Shah:about, um, the role, again, that capital can
Ajaita Shah:play. So I've demonstrated this in a very tiny way.
Ajaita Shah:I believe that there's billions of dollars that need to be unlocked in a
Ajaita Shah:very, um, important way to kind of help,
Ajaita Shah:um, the ecosystem thrive. I know you had Sana
Ajaita Shah:on your podcast just literally a couple of weeks ago,
Ajaita Shah:who I love for me, how do
Ajaita Shah:we help move that capital more effectively?
Ajaita Shah:And what's interesting for me in my leadership
Ajaita Shah:is I suddenly understand the pains
Ajaita Shah:of funds, but I also understand the pains of
Ajaita Shah:entrepreneurs. So I see myself being a
Ajaita Shah:bridge in an interesting way to
Ajaita Shah:help really move money faster, keeping that
Ajaita Shah:gender lens in mind and keeping that impact
Ajaita Shah:lens in mind. You know, the question I've been asking myself
Ajaita Shah:is, how do I take
Ajaita Shah:my experience, my community, my
Ajaita Shah:ecosystem, uh, and my own power and
Ajaita Shah:passion to the next level of
Ajaita Shah:unlocking the billions of dollars that need to
Ajaita Shah:be getting to those people that are doing the work on the ground?
Servane Mouazan:M so imagine it's
Servane Mouazan:ten years from now, it's your 50th birthday.
Servane Mouazan:You are on that bridge, that virtual bridge, and
Servane Mouazan:you look at the billions of dollars that have been unlocked.
Ajaita Shah:Uh.
Servane Mouazan:What in a story would you like to tell
Servane Mouazan:me? Um,
Servane Mouazan:that encapsulates the decade
Servane Mouazan:that just went through.
Ajaita Shah:So you're never easy questions
Ajaita Shah:coming from you obviously
Ajaita Shah:never. Um, I
Ajaita Shah:envision,
Ajaita Shah:I've been privileged to get to
Ajaita Shah:know thousands of social
Ajaita Shah:businesses and organizations that are
Ajaita Shah:equally as passionate as I am about changing the world
Ajaita Shah:and really working with focusing on,
Ajaita Shah:you know, the billions of people
Ajaita Shah:that, like I said, are not seen or
Ajaita Shah:heard and who need
Ajaita Shah:interventions, but also are a market. They're
Ajaita Shah:a big, untapped market reality. They're also
Ajaita Shah:the ones that can potentially change the world and
Ajaita Shah:save the world. If you think about this with a climate lens,
Ajaita Shah:7 billion people in developing countries
Ajaita Shah:are the key to change,
Ajaita Shah:in my opinion. So
Ajaita Shah:unlocking the billions of dollars in a future story, I
Ajaita Shah:would say. I'd proudly be able to say
Ajaita Shah:that by unlocking $3 billion of
Ajaita Shah:capital, we were able to
Ajaita Shah:truly have 7 billion people seen who then
Ajaita Shah:changed the way the world worked because
Ajaita Shah:those entrepreneurs had what they needed. And
Ajaita Shah:ultimately, all of a sudden,
Ajaita Shah:there's wealth and prosperity and
Ajaita Shah:systems that actually have changed the power
Ajaita Shah:dynamics in a way that creates, um, a
Ajaita Shah:shift. We're in a really weird place in the world right
Ajaita Shah:now. Um,
Ajaita Shah:from politics, confusion,
Ajaita Shah:to climate disasters,
Ajaita Shah:uh, and I think
Ajaita Shah:that in the next ten
Ajaita Shah:years, if I can
Ajaita Shah:be a dent in a shift, it would be
Ajaita Shah:enabling the masses to rise in a different way
Ajaita Shah:because prosperity for them, um, changes the
Ajaita Shah:way that we see how even policy and systems
Ajaita Shah:work.
Servane Mouazan:So, just to close as we're coming to an end, what
Servane Mouazan:would be the feeling associated with being the dent
Servane Mouazan:in that shift?
Ajaita Shah:The feeling of being the
Ajaita Shah:dentinal?
Ajaita Shah:Humility, I think, is the
Ajaita Shah:word. It was.
Ajaita Shah:Well, the audience will be able to see me touch my heart,
Ajaita Shah:but, like, ultimately, it's that, um, I
Ajaita Shah:think it's just. And
Ajaita Shah:I really do believe that that will help me build my own
Ajaita Shah:peace of mind. So that
Ajaita Shah:dent is a big one. It can
Ajaita Shah:be. I see. And I think the other word that
Ajaita Shah:comes to me is catalytic, because that's my favorite
Ajaita Shah:word these days.
Servane Mouazan:Um.
Ajaita Shah:Uh, and hopeful.
Servane Mouazan:Right. So we'll see you touching your
Servane Mouazan:heart ten years from now. I'm sure you'll do that
Servane Mouazan:well before. So, what I've heard is
Servane Mouazan:that there is something around that
Servane Mouazan:financial system magic that you bring in
Servane Mouazan:about. You're an impact alchemist
Servane Mouazan:as well, and a trust architect.
Servane Mouazan:That's coming up as well. So, thank you
Servane Mouazan:again for coming onto our
Servane Mouazan:virtual sofa and having a little bit of a
Servane Mouazan:window to your past and your present and your future.
Servane Mouazan:It was a pleasure listening to you today.
Ajaita Shah:Thank you so much. Thanks.
Servane Mouazan:And thank you again, everybody, for listening to that new
Servane Mouazan:thinking conversation in the house of trust with the amazing
Servane Mouazan:Ajaita shah. So, we coming together every four or five
Servane Mouazan:years generally. So I promise you we'll have a little bit of a, uh,
Servane Mouazan:check in in a few years to see where
Servane Mouazan:she's all heading, um,
Servane Mouazan:beyond scale. I'm struck by, uh, the
Servane Mouazan:theme of connecting the dots
Servane Mouazan:and really the proximity
Servane Mouazan:that, uh, a jaita brings between people
Servane Mouazan:showing up and being at the service of people that
Servane Mouazan:sometimes are forgotten, but can
Servane Mouazan:contribute all the same and become agents of change
Servane Mouazan:themselves. More than that. So I'm looking forward to
Servane Mouazan:our next thinking time in the house of trust with a new
Servane Mouazan:guest. Will that be. The show is
Servane Mouazan:available to listen to anywhere. You can find your favorite
Servane Mouazan:podcast, and it's completely free, of course, so you can share
Servane Mouazan:it, review it, comment on it,
Servane Mouazan:and. And think through the questions in real time.
Servane Mouazan:And for more insights, learning and thinking, events and resources,
Servane Mouazan:you can head to my website, which, as you know,
Servane Mouazan:is Sylvainmoisin dot co dot Uk. It's also in the show
Servane Mouazan:notes and subscribe to my regular conscious
Servane Mouazan:innovation updates keep connecting.
Servane Mouazan:Keep thinking. Bye bye for now.