GAME Finance Fellowship

About GAME

The Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) is an alliance of partners unleashing the job creation potential of every entrepreneur in India. Through action driven coalitions (‘taskforces’) around key themes such as ease of doing ‘small’ business, access to finance, MSME acceleration and more, we hope to develop an ecosystem that encourages and enables entrepreneurship. We have 80+ partners across government, civil society, corporates, and donors who want to create 50 million additional jobs through MSMEs by 2030. We commit that 25% of entrepreneurs we support will be women.

About GAME’s Finance taskforce

Led by a former Banking Secretary of India, and composed of leaders from banking, insurance, FinTech, and public policy, the taskforce seeks to increase access to formal finance for India’s 50 million unbanked MSMEs. The group works with FinTechs, bankers, and policy makers to launch new products, conceptualise and deliver large scale programs, and change policy to achieve this goal. As an illustration, the group conceptualised and fundraised for aUSD 100 million Covid Recovery Fund for underbanked MSMEs. You can access the taskforce’s perspectives, and insights here.

About the fellowship

The 3-month fellowship will put GAME Finance Fellows in charge of running a project; these include piloting a new product, developing policy recommendations for Covid recovery relief for MSMEs, and deploying large scale projects with India’s premier MSME financiers.

You will work closely with the GAME taskforce and implementation partners to meet milestones, create impact for MSMEs, and catapult the learning of the ecosystem. You will research, design, work plan, and execute, and at the end of your fellowship, submit a short report, documenting key findings/suggestions for policy makers, FinTech firms, platforms, and banks.

Your background and strengths

• At least 3 years of work experience
• Interest in any of the following – economic development, MSMEs, or finance/FinTech
• Thrive in unstructured environments and love complex problems
• Strong analytical ability and execution chops
• Excellent communication skills especially through writing
• Enthusiasm for rapid research & decision making frameworks
• Ability to synthesise ideas and insights from various stakeholders and sources and build a strong narrative
• Comfort with excel/R/Strata, PowerPoint, and Word

Compensation: INR 2.5 Lakhs for the 3 months; 10% increase if extended for another 3 months

Projects

NBFC Accelerator: build a program for GAME to work with 4-5 NBFCs/FinTech firms in helping them raise low-cost capital; this will include primary research with NBFCs/FinTech firms, partnership building with accelerators, building a program design and value proposition, and onboarding participating NBFCs and FinTech firms

Insurance for MSMEs: work with two large insurance providers to conceptualize, prototype, and pilot insurance for MSMEs; includes partner management, concept building, day to day management of the pilot, and evaluation

Launching supply chain financing in Punjab: work with 3 FinTech firms to launch supply chain financing in Punjab by bringing in large corporate buyers, working with FinTech firms to include a gender lens in their program, and evaluating for impact; build channel partner relationships in Punjab on the ground