Tamil Nadu based GUARDIAN (Gramalaya Urban And Rural Development Initiatives And Network) has raised $1Mn loan from Acumen Fund to finance water and sanitation needs in India.

Promoted by NGO Gramalaya, GUARDIAN is engaged in micro-lending to communities that lack access to individual water and sanitation facilities. GUARDIAN operates in the communities in and around urban and peri-urban Tiruchirapalli (Trichy), Tamil Nadu.

GUARDIAN currently offers micro-loans for the purchase of water and sanitation assets at the household level: connections to municipal water supply, toilet construction, rainwater harvesting equipment, and household water purifiers.

It lends to members of existing women's self-help groups, each with up to fifteen members, and to five-member joint-liability groups that they help form. The loans range between Rs3,000 and R10,000 ($65–215) per individual with repayment made in equal monthly installments over eighteen months.

Guardian has so far reached 25,099 families with water and sanitation facilities through its lending operations in Tiruchirappalli District with a benefiting population of 110,000 plus.

Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that invests in local enterprises including healthcare and clean energy. It has been investing in India since 2001. It invested $2 Mn in Pushpagiri HealthCare in Nov'09. It has also invested D Light Design ($6Mn), SBA Hydro & Renewable Energy ($1.26Mn) and Global Easy Water Products ($1.03Mn) among others. In 2010, Acumen Fund invested $350,000 in Patna based Husk Power Systems Pvt Ltd.

Last year it invested $1.14Mn in Bangalore-based Orb Energy Pvt Ltd. Acumen has also invested in Mumbai-based ambulance start-up service Dial 1298 For Ambulance, communication firm Drishtee and Hyderabad-based Lifespring Hospials, among others.

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