Be! Fund: Investing in Young Entrepreneurs

We've just had a great Investment Commitee meeting where nine young entrepreneurs from BOP communities are receiving investment for their new businesses to solve problems where they live.

Neelankatesh is a beekeeper. What's different about his enterprise, is that he looks after wild bees and his honey is so pure it can be used for medicinal, ayurvedic purposes. He's already got 5 boxes of bees, an investment from Be! Fund will allow him to extend to 75 boxes of bees, pollinating the farmers' fields in his wide, wild village.

Rama is known as the spice lady. She rides her own scooter delivering fresh spices house to house and to small restaurants where she lives. You see, often spices for low-income communities are adulterated with things that just should not be there - sawdust, charcoal, even cow dung. Rama's pure fresh spices reach the poorest people at RS 50 less than other competitors, who often mix their spices with other things.

Lakshmi lives in a village where everyone is a silk worm farmer. When it's time to harvest the silk, farmers go far away to rent the bamboo silk worm mounts they need. Lakshmi's plan is to rent out 400 mounts, clean them with hairbrushes when they return and rent them out again. She'll hire five women and the village leader says "It's a good business for women"

Ravi is only 19 and almost our youngest entrepreneur (except for Yellawa who is just a few months younger). Ravi's plan is to drive a school bus to take lots of little kids to school. They can't get to school at the moment because it's just too far away. Ravi will be driving 80 children every day to school and playing musical lessons on the sound system.

Invest in a young entrepreneur in India today, they're changing the world.

Links:

• Archana's Areca Leaf Plate Enterprise