Lighthouse Communities Foundation to List on BSE's Social Stock Exchange, Bringing Regulated Impact Capital to Youth Livelihoods Programme

5th October 2026, Mumbai: Lighthouse Communities Foundation (LCF), a non-profit that helps underserved youth build livelihoods, is set to list on the Bombay Stock Exchange's Social Stock Exchange (SSE), with its public issue recently openeded on 30th September and closes on 14th October 2026. The issue will raise funds through Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) instruments to expand its Lighthouse programme in Pune. The SSE is a SEBI-regulated platform for eligible non-profits, and the listing builds on a programme that has enabled more than 50,000 youth to access livelihood opportunities.

The timing is significant. On 27 May 2026, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs amended India's CSR rules so that companies can fulfil their CSR obligations through subscriptions to ZCZP instruments issued by SSE-listed non-profits. For corporates with ESG commitments and measurable impact goals, this creates a direct, regulated route to organisations that can show results at scale. Lighthouse can.

For the past decade, LCF has worked to give young people from underserved communities the guidance, confidence and skills to build careers they choose for themselves. Lighthouse begins before any training does. Every young person is first helped to understand their aspirations, strengths and the realities of the job market, so they can make informed livelihood choices. They then choose from 80 vocational courses delivered through 100+ partner organisations, across fields such as manufacturing, BFSI, fashion design, fitness and nutrition, beautician certification, electrician training, accounting and hospitality.

The model runs on a public-private partnership, with state and local governments providing infrastructure and corporate partners funding operations. Today, Lighthouse operates 51 centres across six states: Delhi, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. Women account for nearly 60% of programme enrolments, 77% of placed youth are still employed a year after placement, and two-thirds of graduates find their own job leads after the programme. These are ten years of documented outcomes, not projections, which is exactly what the SSE's social audit and impact reporting framework is designed to surface and verify.

The need is just as large. India has 367 million young people aged 15 to 29, according to the State of Working India 2026, and the Economic Survey 2025-26 found that 91.94% of adolescents aged 14 to 18 had no exposure to skilling.

Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Founder & Chairman, LCF said, "India's demographic dividend can only be realised if young people are equipped not just with skills, but with the confidence, guidance, and opportunities to make informed livelihood choices. The Social Stock Exchange listing strengthens our ability to build that ecosystem while holding ourselves to the highest standards of transparency and accountability.

The listing is not a fundraising event. It is a transparency commitment, an invitation to institutional donors, impact investors, and CSR partners to examine exactly what we do, how we do it, and what it produces."

Proceeds from the ZCZP instruments issued through the listing will support the expansion of Lighthouse's programmes in Pune, strengthening career counselling, skilling, employer partnerships, and long-term livelihood tracking.

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About Lighthouse Communities Foundation

Lighthouse Communities Foundation is on a mission to build empowered communities through life skills, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for disadvantaged youth across India. Through its youth agency approach and pioneering public-private partnership (PPP) model, where local and state governments provide capital expenditure and infrastructure, and the private sector supports operations and implementation, Lighthouse has been working since 2015 towards city-wide transformation. To date, over 2.8 lakh young people have been positively impacted through Lighthouse programmes across six states in India. For more information,

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