IDFC Foundation Invests In Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd, Pipal

Tree Ventures
IDFC arm's cumulative investment in both these for-profit
social ventures comes to Rs 3 crore.
IDFC Foundation, a division of the financial services group
IDFC that seeks to promote the inclusive and sustainable
delivery of infrastructure service in India, has struck two
investment deals worth Rs 3 crore. The foundation invests out of
its Infrastructure Fund, built on an annual allocation from
IDFCs consolidated net profit.
IDFC has invested Rs 47 lakh in Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd, a forprofit company set up in 2005 by a group of professionals. It
provides emergency medical ambulance service in Mumbai
under the brand Dial 1298 for Ambulance. The initiative was
set up in association with London Ambulance Service, a UK
government Agency, which has provided the processes, systems,
protocols, training and project implementation assistance.
This companys business model involves cross-subsidising poor
patients (those getting admitted to municipal hospitals) by richer
patients (those getting admitted to private hospitals). It has also
forayed into providing emergency ambulances services on
behalf of state governments (108 ambulance service) under the
Public Private Partnership (PPP) model and operates such
contracts in Kerala and Bihar.
Ziqitza also has attracted a strategic equity investment from
Emergency Medical Services Corporation Inc., one of the top
providers of emergency medical services in the USA. Other

investors in the firm include Acumen Fund (a social investment

fund), HDFC Ltd and India Value Fund Advisors (though its
affiliate).
IDFC Foundation, keen to blend its parent bodys objectives
regarding PPP capacity-building, policy and corporate social
responsibility (CSR), has also invested Rs 2.25 crore as equity
commitment in Pipal Tree Ventures Pvt Ltd.
Pipal Tree Ventures is also a for-profit company, founded in
2007 by a group of professionals. It provides vocational training
to unemployed rural youth (typically school dropouts) for semiskilled work in the construction industry (steel fixing/barbending, surveying, heavy machine operation, etc.). It operates
on a hub-and-spoke model, and currently has a training hub near
Hyderabad and five recruitment-cum-basic training spokes at
Lalganj & Rai Bareilly (UP), Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Nasik
(Maharashtra) and Shahapura (Rajasthan). Whats more, Pipal
targets to train 50,000 youth over the next five years and also
works with its graduates for a year on the construction sites to
ensure delivery of performance standards.
The company has technical partnerships with Technical &
Further Education (New South Wales, Australia), one of the
largest training providers in the world, and SES, the Foundation
of German Industry for International Cooperation, as well as
with Doosan, Volvo, Schwing Stetter, etc. for equipment
training.