How time flies! I'm
more than half-way done with my VilCap internship in Mumbai and I'm excited to
report that I've made considerable progress. My main mandate for the summer was
to generate a pipeline of interested social enterprises that fit our upcoming
VilCap business accelerator programs. Despite this extremely broad and
challenging goal, I have fully embraced my entrepreneurial spirit by speaking
with more than 100 people, 75% of those are entrepreneurs while the others are
associated with institutions supporting
entrepreneurs like incubators.
The sector focus for the entrepreneurs I've spoken to range from energy access and education to health and handicrafts. Each one of them has no
shortage of passion and dedication to advance their enterprise while positively
impacting millions. Supporting these entrepreneurs is why I am pursuing a career in impact investing in emerging markets.
Every entrepreneur is amazing in his or her own
right so I have decided to showcase a few social entrepreneurs for my remaining blog posts. The first entrepreneur is Tanvi Surti with Chachii.
What is Chachii?
Chachii is a SMS and online-based platform that connects laborers such as maids
and drivers to people who need short-term, temporary help. Tanvi Surti, a
recent graduate at Bryn Mawr College, is one of the co-founders of Chachii.
After completing college, she decided to move back to India to start Chachii in
Mumbai, India.
How does Chachii
work? Individuals post tasks online or by phone and Chachii selects a laborer
that can complete the task. After receiving information about the laborer, the
individual sits back while his or her task is completed. After the task is
completed, the laborer pays the pre-determined amount (no haggling!) to the
individual while Chachii takes a small cut of the payment. Although e-commerce
is still fairly new in India, Chachii is paving the way by encouraging online
transactions and payments with online pre-paid credits.
Why is Chachii important? In Mumbai and across India, hiring help like a driver for your car
and a maid for your flat is extremely common especially for people in the
middle class and higher. Given that Mumbaikars are more liberal and
progressive, more bachelor(ette)s in Mumbai live on their own compared to those
in other more traditional cities. Although hiring a driver or maid is still
common for these customers, they usually cannot afford a full-time driver or
live-in maid. Hiring short-term, temporary help is much more appealing. Finding
good-quality, reliable, and trustworthy help is difficult though as most people
use personal networks and references. Much like Angie's List and Task Rabbit
based in the states, Chachii fills this gap by connecting laborers while
encouraging customer feedback to increase transparency and drive repeat users.
What is Chachii's impact
on society? In India, most laborers come from lower-income groups usually those
at the upper edge of the Base of the Pyramid. Chachii connects people from
these groups as well as college students looking for extra income. By joining
the Chachii network, laborers have the potential to make a sizable monthly
income in addition to their full-time work.
What is Chachii's
vision? Besides expanding the range of services offered, Chachii hopes to
expand to all major metropolitan cities in India and reach an estimated 60
million laborers in the unskilled and informal labor market across India. With
its current focus on Mumbai, the most populous city in India, Chachii has its
work cut out for them!
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