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Alchemy of Inclusion: The Audacity of Scaling Rural Prosperity with Ajaita Shah
Episode 42 • 23rd August 2024 • Be & Think in the House of Trust • Servane Mouazan
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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:

http://eepurl.com/hp0h55

Transcripts

Servane Mouazan:

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.

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