By Amina Kidwai | Project Director
Be! Fund pilot was launched in Bangalore in June 2011 with a multimedia campaign of radio episodes, posters and a Muppet show aired for 30 days on local cable channels. The campaign reached over 400,000 people and each media piece asked young people to submit their enterprise idea for change to the Be! Fund by postcard, text or just call. We received over 2,000 phone class and 150 text messages, four entrepreneurs made it through the selection process to be funded. This experience demonstrates how important it is to cast the net as widely as possible, in order to source strong candidates, and that mass media is critical to this process.
At this stage, Be! did not tailor its campaign specifically towards women but in the next round, we would like the opportunity build on our experience to bring more women into the pipeline.
Our pilot demonstrated that young people were very capable of coming up with a business idea which both worked financially, and solved a problem in their community.
Four entrepreneurs were invested in after being through three levels of interviews, site visits and review by a 10 member Investment Committee – including self made entrepreneurs, development professionals and financial experts.
Muniraju’s Plastic Recycling Business
Muniraju lives in a village in Anekal, rural Bangalore, with his wife and mother. Muniraju has seen the problem of plastic waste disposal all around him. His plan is to collect waste door to door, pick it up from the streets and buy it from scrap dealers. He will sort and recycle the waste into plastic chips. The plastic is reused rather than dirty the surroundings.
Radhakrishna’s Village Transport Business
Radhakrishna lives in Nagamangala village in Kolar district. Most people in his village are farmers. He has observed that the biggest problem for the farmers is taking their produce to the market. The village has no market. The nearest market is 15 km away. There are big markets beyond this, but transport is expensive and erratic. Farmers often leave their produce to rot. Radhakrishna wants to run a low-cost and on-time transportation service that allows farmers to get to new markets
Rajesh’s Urban Farming & Rainwater Harvesting Business
Rajesh lives in Kurubarahalli, a suburban area in Bangalore. He says that everything around him is grey. Everyone is building, building, building... they are taking away the green and with the green goes the water. Rajesh has designed a business which will put green on the top of houses and save water. Rajesh wants to build urban farms and rainwater harvesting systems.
Shankar’s Garment Business Employing People with Disabilities
Shankar had polio as a child and is now unable to walk. Shankar has the skills to work in a garment factory. However, he is paid 50% less than his colleagues’. He finds it difficult to operate machines, which are situated in different places around the factory. Shankar knows, that if the machines were better positioned, his disability would not affect his productivity. Without an enabling environment, Shankar and other disabled workers are perceived to be less productive by employers, who take advantage of this, to pay less. Shankar has a business idea to solve his problem. He wants to set up an easily accessible garment workshop. All his employees will be disabled. They will produce just as much and everyone will be paid well.
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