Entrepreneurs

How The Dignified Jobs Accelerator Cracked The Model For Meaningful And Effective Acceleration

How The Dignified Jobs Accelerator Cracked The Model For Meaningful And Effective Acceleration

Since 2017, Upaya Social Ventures has been at the forefront of this work to empower early-stage entrepreneurs through its Dignified Jobs Accelerator, equipping them with tools and knowledge to become investment ready for impact investors. The accelerator builds on Upaya’s ongoing work to provide investment and support to entrepreneurs creating dignified jobs for people in extreme poverty.

Raheja Solar: A Solar-Powered Solution to Food Waste

Raheja Solar: A Solar-Powered Solution to Food Waste

In 2018, Varun Raheja founded Raheja Solar Food Processing Pvt. Ltd. in Indore, Madhya Pradesh with the aim of helping Indian farmers increase the shelf life of their produce, thereby allowing them to derive greater value from it. Raheja Solar provides farmers with an affordable and foldable solar dryer that can be installed even in the remotest of farms. The dryers dehydrate produce in a way that preserves its color, taste, fragrance, and nutrients.

Farmology: Creating Farmers of the Future

Farmology: Creating Farmers of the Future

Farmology is an app-based platform which assists farmers by providing integrated crop advisory in real time. They manufacture agri inputs and also partner with other agri input companies to provide farmers with access to seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides — all of which is available on the Farmology app.

YellowBag: Building a Better Future, One Bag at a Time

YellowBag: Building a Better Future, One Bag at a Time

YellowBag is a family run business that focuses on sustainability and livelihoods by working with women to make cloth bags as an alternative to plastic bags. Gowri RG and Krishnan Subramanian were inspired to find a way to make a difference after they became parents. It was impossible for them to ignore the impact something as small as a plastic bag might have on their child's future.

reThela: Helping Street Vendors Get Organized

reThela: Helping Street Vendors Get Organized

Sunil Kumar is the founder of reThela, a social venture that aims to build an organized retail market infrastructure for fragmented and unorganized street vendors. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Sunil worked with Uniliever selling chocolates on the streets of Mumbai. Now he is helping the fragmented street vendor market get organized.

Gramshree Kisan: Empowering Farmers, Aggregating Technology, Creating Livelihood

Gramshree Kisan: Empowering Farmers, Aggregating Technology, Creating Livelihood

When Aastha and a small team of four began building Gramshree Kisan they started with very little funding, but found an audience on YouTube. Through this platform, not only were they able to build a following, but also earn enough to build upon a training facility.

Pasidi Panta: Helping Small Farmers Grow a “Golden Harvest”

Pasidi Panta: Helping Small Farmers Grow a “Golden Harvest”

Krishnaiah is the founder of Pasidi Panta, a company working with spice growers. Coming from an agricultural family, he has firsthand experience with the difficulties smallholder farmers face. In 2014 Krishnaiah did the unthinkable. He sold parts of his farmland to become an entrepreneur, despite the concerns of his family. He had a vision and the drive to start a business that could help smallholder farmers improve their profits.

FarmDidi: Sisters Empowering Sisters

FarmDidi: Sisters Empowering Sisters

Manjari and Asmita are the founders of FarmDidi where they are on a mission to provide healthy, natural, and authentic food products by empowering over one million rural women. Their work is helping Farmer Didis (sisters) to become successful and compliant food entrepreneurs through services like food testing, compliance, packaging solutions, and training.

Bharat Krushi Seva: Helping Farmers Become Self-dependent

Bharat Krushi Seva: Helping Farmers Become Self-dependent

How can technology help to make the lives of farmers easier and allow them to become more self-dependent? This is the question Sharayu and Hemant sought to answer when they founded Bharat Krushi Seva. Hailing from farmer families, Sharayu and Hemant were better equipped than most to help find innovative solutions for the agricultural industry.

Anuprerna: Supporting Handmade Textiles and the Artisans Who Make Them

Anuprerna: Supporting Handmade Textiles and the Artisans Who Make Them

West Bengal is historically famous for its textile industry, but who are the artisans behind these beautiful fabrics? Entrepreneur Amit Singha’s father worked closely with these skilled craftsmen and women and encouraged Amit to pursue work to support these communities.