Procter & Gamble (P&G) India has announced a Rs 500-crore ‘P&G Rural Growth Fund’ to accelerate inclusive growth in the Indian rural market.

The fund will provide external partners an opportunity to collaborate with P&G on business solutions customised for meeting the needs of rural consumers. This will include solutions on superior communication, media outreach and go-to-market solutions such as tech-enabled selling, increasing distribution and last-mile delivery.

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’ programme that focuses on identifying and collaborating with start-ups, small businesses, individuals, and large organisations 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 19-20 October 2021, which will offer a platform to existing and new suppliers to pitch their solutions to P&G’s leadership team to accelerate rural growth.

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.

“For P&G, accelerating our growth in the rural market is a strategic priority. 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.”

Madhusudan further added, “Four years ago, we launched our vGROW programme with a vision to create an active collaboration platform for external partners and suppliers across India. Over the years, we have invested more than Rs 680 crores 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.”

vGROW is P&G’s 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 organisations 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.