ACT Blended Finance White Paper: From Idea to Board Recommendation

Upasana identified a gap in ACT's capital strategy midway through her fellowship. The firm was deploying philanthropic capital through grants but had not explored blended finance instruments such as convertible notes or returnable grants, which she believed could significantly extend the impact of each rupee deployed.

She brought the idea to the CEO directly. The CEO confirmed that a new fund raise was planned for the following year and asked Upasana to develop a formal analysis that could be presented to the board and investment committee.

Upasana structured the research in three layers. First, she mapped the landscape of blended finance instruments and the regulatory environment governing their use in India. Second, she identified which instruments were legally and operationally viable for ACT's context. Third, she studied how comparable organizations globally were using those instruments to maximize impact.

The output was a longer research report and a shorter actionable memo. The memo walked through the specific steps ACT would need to take: regulatory requirements, financial structuring, instrument selection, and a shortlist of portfolio organizations that could benefit from blended finance transactions, along with the pros and cons of proceeding.

ACT is now pitching blended finance as part of its next five-year fund raise, with the white paper serving as the analytical foundation for that pitch.