Social Enterprise Portfolio

Drishtee - $150,000 Investment

This company offers an ISP 'e-Government' solution in rural villages in northern India. The business model is based on franchises for expansion, making it easily replicable throughout India and even globally. The investment will fund operating capital to support expansion to new regions and the creation of new content.

Drishtee is already in operation in more than 250 locations providing affordable services for villagers like land title reports, common government application forms, and ask-a-question services. While such a service may sound trivial, the alternative method to get such information typically requires extensive travel and significant time spent waiting in line. Drishtee offers immediacy, convenience, and time-savings for customers. It also provides a middle class wage for the entrepreneur/owner.
http://www.drishtee.com

SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association) - $25,000 Grant

This leading women's service organization provides job training, Microfinance and other social services to more than 300,000 members throughout India. MIT Media Lab Asia and Thunderbird's American Graduate School of International Management provided proposal-development assistance. Digital Partners India is providing a $20,000 grant in addition to $5,000 provided earlier to install 400 donated computers and train more than 250 frontline staff in their use. This technology upgrade will increase staff efficiency and the effectiveness of the organization.

While this may seem an uneventful task in developed societies, most of SEWA's satellite offices do not have computers and may not even have a phone. Therefore, basic organizational efforts like inter-office communication are extensive barriers. This grant seeks to be a model to provide a 'technology facelift' - maximizing technological impact with minimal financial cost to increase organizational capacity at successful local non-governmental organizations.
http://www.sewa.org

SKS (Swayam Krishi Sangam Foundation) - $25,000 Convertible Equity Loan

This Microfinance institution is a Grameen replication project that has spun-off the development of its technology solutions as SKS Infotech. The convertible loan will support Infotech's development of smart-card application for the Microfinance industry. This will increase organizational efficiency, decrease costs, and minimize errors/fraud.

SKS received commendation for its business plan, written with the assistance of students from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management, in the National Social Venture Business Plan Competition sponsored jointly by the University of California-Berkeley and Columbia Business School.
http://www.sksindia.org

Computers On Wheels (COW) - $10,000 Grant

This seed grant funds the pilot implementation of a mobile ISP service. As the name indicates, rural villages 'off the grid' are provided computer service and internet connectivity with a new twist. A technician visits the community on a motorcycle with a laptop computer with dynamic content downloaded daily. Villagers can request regular services, like governmental forms, and check current information - crop prices in regional markets or the news, for example.

This service has widespread implications as a 'last mile' solution in rural communities where electricity and even newspapers are rare or non-existent. The project was provided technical assistance by students from the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs and the Business School.