P&G establishes a Growth Fund of ₹500 Cr to boost the rural economy

P&G aiming to accelerate its rural growth by collaborating with external partners on innovations tailored for rural consumers and retailers

Procter & Gamble (P&G) India has set up a ₹500 Cr ‘P&G Rural Growth Fund’ to accelerate inclusive growth in the Indian rural market. This fund will provide external partners an opportunity to collaborate with P&G on business solutions customized for meeting the needs of rural consumers.

This will include solutions on superior communication, media outreach and go-to-market solutions like tech-enabled selling, increasing distribution and last-mile delivery.

P&G India’s ‘vGROW’ Program

The rural market is a significant contributor to the growth of the FMCG industry. The opportunities of the rural market are unique and require solutions that are tailor-made to meet the needs and consumer habits of the rural consumer.

This new fund is a part of P&G India’s ‘vGROW’ program that focuses on identifying and collaborating with start-ups, small businesses, individuals, and large organizations offering innovative industry-leading business solutions.

With this announcement, P&G also launched the fourth edition of ‘P&G vGROW External Business Partner Summit,’ on October 19-20, 2021, which offers a platform to existing and new suppliers to pitch their solutions to P&G’s leadership team to accelerate rural growth.

Rural India

Madhusudan Gopalan, CEO, P&G Indian Subcontinent said, “Rural India has a pivotal role to play in India’s road to recovery from the pandemic. We have already seen the rural segment deliver a resilient performance during the last few months and will continue to be a key driver of growth for the FMCG industry. Accelerating our growth in the rural market is a strategic priority.”

Rural Growth Fund

“With this, we set up P&G’s ‘Rural Growth Fund’ to collaborate with external partners who understand the rural DNA and can enable us to deliver our superior products, communication, retail execution and value to our rural consumers.

We also want to invest in empowering rural kiranas with tech-enabled solutions and best practices on inventory and store management that will help them build their businesses further.

We are confident that through these partnerships we will be able to contribute towards the inclusive growth of the rural economy.”, he said.

vGROW Program Business

Madhusudan further added, “Four years ago, we launched our vGROW program with a vision to create an active collaboration platform for external partners and suppliers across India. Over the years, we have invested more than ₹680 Cr in business solutions through this platform.

We strongly believe that by forging partnerships on new-age, innovative and sustainable solutions, we have been able to create value for our consumers, partners, communities and the company.”

Collaborative Ecosystem

vGROW is P&G’s first-of-its-kind platform to identify and collaborate with businesses and individuals offering industry-leading solutions. Through this platform, P&G engages with over 2,000 Indian suppliers including start-ups, small businesses and large organizations from a wide range of industries and services – from creative agencies to technology partners to material suppliers.

To come up with innovative solutions via external business partnerships, P&G has its online platform ‘P&G Hackathon’ which connects external business partners with innovative solutions to the company’s needs, thereby creating a collaborative ecosystem.

(Economy India)