Grameen Impact Ventures

In rural India, the last-mile delivery of digital financial services to low-income and generally excluded sections of the communities (like women, farmers, etc) has multiple adoption barriers. This includes lack of knowledge and awareness, trust deficit, convenience, lack of a compelling use case, gaps in affordability, behavioral inertia, and accessibility. It is equally challenging to create and market socially relevant products and services that generate adequate demand to offset the low margins. 

Grameen Impact Ventures (GIV) is an Agile tech-driven eco-system aggregator that provides access to appropriate and affordable digital and financial services to the community through an assisted model of delivery, scalable across most emerging economies in the world. GIV operates a feet-on-street network of aspiring women entrepreneurs called “Grameen Mittra™️” who run their micro-enterprises and serve the community members around.

GIV's customer-centric design addresses different adoption barriers and is robust and scalable for diverse contexts.

A large part of the low-income rural population including women, farmers, and small business owners face digital exclusion. They face high enter and adoption barriers for digital products and services. they face gaps in awareness (low literacy and lack of customer education), availability, and accessibility of digital products and services. As a result, only 1 in 6 people save in formal financial institutions. Less than one in twelve borrows from financial institutions. Over 95% of the 65 million micro and small enterprises do not have access to finance. Even with the rise of Fintechs, there is a lack of customer-centricity and access to a basket of appropriate digital and financial products and services. Our addressable market in India comprises 700 million adult men and women who live in the income bracket of $2 to $8 per day.

GIV drives digital inclusion by reducing barriers to adoption with a customer-centric focus and by working in collaboration with a range of partner organizations offering a curated basket of products and services. By shifting from product-centric to a customer-centric approach, GIV reduces the complexity of access by increasing convenience and building trust. The solution entails the following elements:

Grameen Mittras: 

• Meaning “Friend of the Village”, Grameen Mittras™️ provide financial education and assisted services for convenient access to digitally enabled, financial, livelihood, and non-financial products and services to the community around her.

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• Digital platform: 

  
  

  • GIV's digital platform Grameen Mittra Connect (GMC) is a single point interface, connecting to numerous digitally enabled financial and livelihood services, including digital learning, banking, assisted e-commerce, government to citizen services etc. The platform is accessed in an assisted mode through the Grameen Mittra. 

  
  

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• Data aggregation and synthesis engine:
  • As the previously digitally excluded populations are served by the phygital model of GIV, it generates a data trail. Through data mining and analytics, GIV generates insights, and predictions using machine learning tools. This reduces risk, addresses adoption barriers, and increases efficiency in serving this hard to reach and costly to serve customer segment.

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GIV's solution caters to the following key stakeholders and target populations:

Grameen Mittras: Women are selected from local communities as Grameen Mittras, and are trained to adopt digital technologies and digital financial services, along with critical entrepreneurship skills. This enables them to become self-reliant entrepreneurs who effectively serve their communities.

Low- income Communities (with income between US$ 2 to US$ 8 per day): Low-income communities who fall within the income bracket of US$ 2 to US$ 8 are the missing middle, as they are not effectively catered to by Fintechs as well as microfinance institutions.

Grameen Mittras work on their digital inclusion through awareness creation, addressing trust barriers, behavioral inertia, and convenient access to digitally-enabled financial and other services. Through customer empowerment and education, GIV builds trust and confidence to start undertaking digital transactions on the GIV platform. Grameen Mittras provide timely feedback to the GIV team based on the customer’s experience with the platform. Grameen Mittras also bring valuable insights about the customer’s needs and socio-economic conditions which is used to customize the basket of products and services for different customer segments.

Some specific target group targeted by GIV includes:

Farmers: GIV works with farmers around four major themes -

• Financial Management: Improved financial management and access to bundled digital financial services (including insurance and working-capital lending) for farmers through the GIV platform, promoting growth in productivity as well as income for the farmers.

• Agri-Input Management: Reduction in operating costs for farmers through buyer and collection management supported by agri-input management services on the GIV digital platform.

• Marketplace: Unlock the potential for increased price-realization of crop production for farmers through integrated digital marketplaces on the GIV platform, thereby increasing the income of farmers.

• Holistic Agri-Advisory Services: Provide access to holistic phygital (physical + digital) agri-advisory services through capacity building of farmers on the technical, market, and financial parameters, thereby increasing small-holder farmer productivity and income.

• Women: Beyond digital financial services, GIV helps women consumers access health and retail products like sanitary pads, clean water, and solar energy products. Grameen Mittras also works on strengthening the social capital and social networks of the women, and bring door-step services.

• Old-Age Families: GIV connects households with old-age members to pensions and other relevant schemes, which they can directly access from their bank accounts at the doorstep of their homes.

• Small businesses: GIV enables digital financial services for micro and small businesses and other retail businesses so that their customers can transact digitally, leading to customer convenience and loyalty.

GIV business model is built on three foundations- (i) Deep understanding of the barriers faced by different customer segments (ii) Digital platforms to provide curated and appropriate products aligned to specific needs of different customer segments and (iii) local, trusted women entrepreneurs working as Grameen Mittras to connect people to information and enable access to digital economy and opportunities.

The solution takes a customer-centric view and leverages the power of digital platforms to bring the rural digitally excluded segments into the mainstream of digital economy, by different adoption barriers faced by different customer segments. 

GIV piloted its business model initially with around 100 Grameen Mittras in one district in 2019. Subsequently, the full-scale roll out of GIV services began in October 2020. Having scaled its business in 4 districts across 2 states in India as follows, GIV is now in a growth stage.

• Nagpur district, Maharashtra

• Nashik district, Maharashtra

• Bhandara district, Maharashtra

• Nawada district, Bihar

In 9 months, GIV has seen a total GTV (Gross Transaction Value) of INR 89.6 Million (USD 1.2 Million) with a network of 878 Grameen Mittras, and over 710,000 customers onboarded on its platform. The platform is offering digital literacy, digital financial services digital payments, remittances, utility payments and others such as Insurance, skill development and Government-to-Citizen services. With the platform and services in place, GIV is ready to scale into multiple geographies while expanding its offerings.

The fundamental ingredient of GIV's model is it being grounded in deep understanding of the barriers and challenges faced by our target customers (low-income rural women with low levels of literacy) and their aspirations. We go after solving the problems that are more difficult to crack. 

Our second differentiation comes from the deep experience of the team that works on devising and testing different solutions in the hinterlands of rural India. what makes this high caliber and experienced team uniquely positioned to solve this problem, is that they derive their strength from being curious to better understand the needs and preferences of our target customer, from our humility, that we do not know everything, and we must always look to learn more, and in our belief that our target customer will not only be an end-user of our solutions but also, a key part of our strategy to find, test and refine that solution. 

Our third compelling strength comes from our ability to bring in experts from different disciplines such as IT, Financial Services, Behavioral Economics, Learning and Development etc and to make them work together on solving the problem.

The key innovation is the integration of platform economics and the untapped potential of women entrepreneurs that anchor our implementation. Our deep experience with low-income communities helps build a curated basket of offerings deployed through these women entrepreneurs. The model emphasizes customer education, a customer-centric product basket, and a quick feedback loop for communication as well as grievance resolution.

Currently, GIV caters to a customer base of over 700,000 customers, with 878 Grameen Mittras across 4 districts and 2 states.

In the next one year, we aim to increase our customer base to 1.5 million customers, with a network of 1,500 Grameen Mittras across 9 districts of 4 states.

In 5 years, our vision is to have a network of over 15,000 Grameen Mittras catering to a customer base of over 10 million customers in 50 districts across 9 states.

When a customer is onboarded, GIV collects complete socio-economic data (like household income, dependence on remittances, access to savings and pension, previous credit history, insurance, gender, marital status, etc) of the customer to be able to curate and customize the products and services. With this data, GIV can understand customer buying patterns, and use prediction algorithms to understand the demand of the consumers better.

Our parameters of measurement of progress include the following:

Platform Metrics

1. Gross Transaction Volume on the platform
2. Number of Grameen Mittras engaged with the Platform
3. Number of Customers onboarded on the platform, and the number of active customers transacting on the platform (month-on-month).

Other metrics include:

1. Transactions growth rate per customer per year
2. Service value increase per year 
3. Service adoption growth rate per year 
4. Customers per Grameen Mittras growth rate

We also look at customer transactions on each service of the platform to adjust the portfolio of services and understand the demands of the customer effectively.

Grameen Mittra Metrics

1. Revenue for the GIV platform generated per Grameen Mittra: which is analysed based on the location and the population size that the Grameen Mittras cater to.
2. Grameen Mittra Earnings: We look at commissions earned by Grameen Mittras at the end of every month

Customer Metrics

1. Customer Lifetime Value: We calculate the customer retention and the cash flows generated by the customer over a period of time on the platform.
2. Socio-Economic Clustering Analysis: Consumption patterns especially for farmers, women, and other vulnerable sections of the community.

Full-Time Staff: 30

Part-Time Staff: 4

Contractors: 0

GIV team has deep experience of the team that works on devising and testing different solutions. This high caliber and experienced team derives its strength from being inquisitive, that we need to better understand the needs and preferences of our target customer, from our humility, that we do not know everything, and we must always look to learn more, and in our belief that our target customer will not only be an end-user of our solutions but also, a key part of our strategy to find, test and refine those solutions. 

The team is led by Prabhat Labh, an international development expert with over twenty-five years of experience in leading programs and initiatives across twenty countries in Asia, Africa and North America. Prabhat brings a deep domain of knowledge in financial inclusion, enterprise development and livelihood sectors. Besides, he also serves on various boards, investment committees, and advisory committees

The core team comprises industry veterans with over twenty years of work experience, bringing a diverse set of skills in operations, finance, gender, technology, and business planning. 

The organisation is led by a deeply engaged board with members like Suresh Krishna, the CEO of Yunus Social Business Fund and Colonel Prakash Tewari, a CSR and a leader in the social enterprise sector.

The GIV leadership team brings over 200 years of cumulative industry experience. 

The leadership team at GIV bring vast experiences gathered working on the field, closely engaging with the low-income communities. GIV is structured to have robust feedback loops across teams, as well between the communities, the Grameen Mittras, and the service providers. This ensures that the voices of everyone get heard, and we are able to pivot and put efforts in customization and curation of services based on feedback. Emphasis is placed on promoting diversity not only in recruitment but also in paying close attention to the culture of inclusiveness so that GIV can retain talent from diverse backgrounds and personality types. Special attention is paid to make sure people from different generations can work together and enjoy. A lot of emphasis is placed on establishing rapport with every team member, so that they build relationships, develop trust and help each other.   

GIV follows a 360 degree performance review process, with continuous feedback loops. Opportunity is created for everyone to lead different initiatives, so as to develop their communication skills, confidence, and leadership. We foster a culture of innovation, which encourages new ideas, innovations, and learning from failures. 

1. Funding: Provides GIV with a great platform to pitch to some of the foremost investors and committed impact-investing organizations of the world.

2. Access to Peer Learning: Provides GIV with an excellent platform in learning from worthy peers in models being implemented across the world, the challenges, the evolving landscape of technology and its integration into communities, as well as best practices in business and management. 

3. Enhanced visibility and Commitment to Cause: Provide GIV with brand equity and enhances the visibility of the organization. It also provides a commitment of MIT and the peer network of MIT Solve towards economic inclusion of low-income communities and women empowerment, to a world that promotes diversity, inclusion, and equality.

4. Mentorship and Coaching: GIV receives mentoring and coaching from leaders in cutting edge technology tools for our Grameen Mittras and customers, best business practices, and a hot seat to view the emerging economies and outlook of the changing landscape of digital financial services, diffusion of innovation and technology, and market economics.

5. In-Kind Resources: Access to a set of world class tools and licenses to cutting edge software is the icing on the cake for GIV.

GIV needs to reach out to global impact investors. Therefore, support in pitching to such investors, as well as help with legal matters, such as term sheet, valuations, etc will be critical. 

Further, we also need help in building a strong brand and visibility for GIV, which helps it attract business partnerships, investment, employees etc. 

We want to explore partnerships on primarily three components:

1.     Technology components and diffusion of technology – organisations leveraging AI/ML tools, as well as technology development for low-tech communities, such as Destacame, Ada Health, AHSA platform, PENSA *660#, etc.

2.     Value Added Services for GIV Platform, that improves the platform offerings itself – organisations like Sthan, Dost Education, CareMother, etc

3.     Synergies with Tech-enabled community solutions which can be used to increase the basked of products and services– organisations like TruTrader, E-Heza, Khushi Baby

GIV provides access to technology and digital financial services to low-income rural communities, most of whom do not have access to smartphones or any means of accessing these digital services. We do this in an assisted mode with Grameen Mittras, our network of last-mile women entrepreneurs bridging the gap. These Grameen Mittras provide digital literacy to these community members and help them access these services, thereby advancing inclusion and economic opportunities. To date, over 700,000 community members have been benefitted through our efforts at GIV.

We tap into the potential of enterprising women in the communities in the villages in rural India, and identify, select, train and onboard these women as entrepreneurs called Grameen Mittras. These women are provided with access to technological, market, and financial skills, along with training in digital financial services, and using the GIV platform in building their business within the community. All 878 Grameen Mittras on our network are women entrepreneurs. We also show commitment to building women-centric solutions by providing in-kind resources, and product and service offerings to our women customers across the board.