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What is the problem? The World Health Organization has called Bangladesh’s arsenic water crisis the largest mass poisoning of a population in human history. Between 20 and 45 million people in Bangladesh drink arsenic-contaminated water every day. In the 1970s and 1980s, aid organizations drilled millions of tube wells across the country to provide rural Bangladeshis with an alternative to bacteria-contaminated surface water that caused cholera and other diarrheal diseases. But in the 1990s, millions of villagers began developing serious skin diseases, respiratory problems, and internal cancers. Ironically, the same wells meant to protect them from certain death now supplied water contaminated with natural arsenic leached from sediments beneath the delta. This issue isn't limited to villages. In Dhaka, for example, research by Transparency International Bangladesh in 2019 found that 51.5% of the city's population receives contaminated water from Dhaka WASA, a state-owned company. Approximately 4 million people living in Dhaka's slums lack legal access to water. Collectively, boiling water costs $3.9 million a day, just for the gas to boil water they suspect is unsafe. Bangledesh child drinking clean water What is the solution? DrinkWell technology removes arsenic, fluoride, and iron from water before supplying it to consumers. DrinkWell uses innovative water filtration technology that relies on its patented HIX-Nano (Hybrid Ion Exchange) nanotechnology, which binds heavy metals in water and removes them without wasting water. One resin set lasts 10 years and extracts 99% of the water it filters. DrinkWell uses the technology in two key ways. First, Water ATMs are community-based kiosks that provide purified water around the clock via prepaid smart cards, affordably priced at about 40 paise per liter. Second, utility companies integrate HIX-Nano filtration into the city’s water infrastructure, making piped water safe to drink for millions of homes. DrinkWell filtration flow What is the business model? DrinkWell operates as a for-profit social enterprise using a public-private partnership model. In Bangladesh, DrinkWell collaborates with the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA), Chittagong WASA, Khulna WASA, and Narayanganj City Corporation through public-private partnerships. The utility provides the land and connections, while DrinkWell supplies the equipment and manages the Water ATMs. People pay for the water they consume, and the utility receives improved service delivery. DrinkWell generates income from per-liter revenue and system installation fees. In India, DrinkWell wins government bids and provides utility-scale piped systems, including the world’s largest piped water treatment system for arsenic and iron removal in West Bengal. Additional revenue comes from partnerships with international donors and multilaterals, including the Asian Development Bank, UNICEF, and USAID's Feed the Future program. This strategy allows DrinkWell to serve low-income communities at affordable prices while remaining commercially sustainable. Drinkwell water jugs How is it structured and funded? Minhaj Chowdhury founded DrinkWell in 2013. Chowdhury is a Bangladeshi American who grew up in America, attended Johns Hopkins, and then returned to Bangladesh as a Fulbright Scholar. Chowdhury worked for five years with BRAC, the world's largest NGO, on arsenic mitigation before founding DrinkWell with Dr. Arup SenGupta and Mike German of Lehigh University. Why is it innovative? DrinkWell's product innovation is powered by HIX-Nano resin. What sets it apart from other water purification technologies is its ability to remove arsenic and fluoride from water without producing hazardous waste, along with its 10-year lifespan, which makes the economics work. However, business innovation matters just as much. Water is a public resource meant to be provided by the government, yet many companies have failed to build sustainable business models around it. DrinkWell does not compete with the utility–it works with the utility. It does not sell bottles of water; instead, it provides access to one liter at a time throughout the day, at approximately one-tenth the price of bottled water. Moreover, rather than charging the poorest people the full cost of water, it leverages cross-subsidy arrangements with donors and utilities to provide free water to ultra-poor homes. For example, DrinkWell’s UNICEF-funded installation in the village of Khulna delivers free water to 100 ultra-poor families and provides water at market prices to 2,785 more low-income families. DrinkWell Water ATM What is the impact? Based on DrinkWell's own reporting and third-party sources: Deployed over 700 water treatment plants globally Serves more than 3 million people daily and 100 million by 2030 Operates 290+ Water ATM booths in Dhaka alone Sold approximately 349 million liters of water in Dhaka in 2022, up from 34 million liters in 2018 Provides the world's largest piped arsenic and iron removal water system, deployed in West Bengal, India Drinkwell water What needs to improve? DrinkWell faces three main challenges. First, willingness to pay. USAID's Feed the Future partnership in Faridpur found that, despite water pollution in the area, people sometimes hesitated to pay for prepaid ATM cards. To create demand for a public service, community mobilization and marketing are required, and these initiatives cost money. Second, dependence on utility and government collaborations. DrinkWell's development in Bangladesh largely depends on collaboration with water authorities. If political priorities shift or an alternative solution wins a bid, DrinkWell could be excluded from markets it took years to enter. The third element is the capital required to achieve its goal of serving 100 million people by 2030. Deploying 700 plants took DrinkWell a decade. Scaling 40 times within five years would require a massive increase in capital, manpower, and installation capacity. Whether the impact investing and infrastructure finance ecosystem is prepared to underwrite that kind of growth for a water company is genuinely uncertain. Sources: Drinkwell: Quenching the thirst for clean water | The Business Standard A market-creation story: Drinkwell - Christensen Institute Drinkwell – Danone communities Drinkwell: Cleaning Water, Generating a Profit Thirst for Change: Safe Drinking Water in Bangladesh | Abt Global Drinkwell-Solve MIT JHU Alumni

What is the problem? Rural healthcare in India faces several challenges, including the sheer scale of the problem, proximity to providers, and workforce constraints. More than 65% of India's population lives in rural areas, while 75% of doctors work in urban settings. Currently, India's doctor-to-population ratio is 1:1,511, which is below the WHO guideline of 1:1,000. Moreover, 60% of the Indian population reports a lack of access to affordable, quality medical services. For a rural household in West Bengal or Odisha, the nearest doctor could be a full day away. There are many cases in which diabetes is not diagnosed until it begins to damage the patient’s eyesight. Similarly, high blood pressure is left untreated until the patient suffers a stroke. Pregnant women don't receive prenatal care due to the inaccessibility of healthcare facilities, and children die from pneumonia because of poor healthcare facilities in the area. Community health activist treating iKure patient What is the solution? iKure Techsoft has implemented an innovative hub-and-spoke model to deliver primary healthcare services in rural areas. In its business model, iKure Techsoft operates physical clinics at the hub, staffed by doctors, nurses, and paramedics, in semi-urban and rural areas. The spokes include Rural Health Centers and iKure Community Health Activists, known as iCHA. These activists visit villages on foot, conduct screenings, check vitals, refer patients back to the hub clinics when required, and follow up after treatment. iKure coordinates this outreach through WHIMS (Wireless Health Incident Monitoring System), a cloud-based proprietary software developed by iKure that operates on low-bandwidth internet connections. Patient-provider interactions, along with prescriptions and follow-ups, are entered into electronic health records that the iCHA in villages and the doctors at the hub clinic can access. iKure doctor meeting with patients What is the business model? iKure is a for-profit social enterprise with several income streams. Patients pay nominal fees for consultations, medications, and diagnostic services at the hub centers. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) partners fund hiring community health workers and providing health screenings. Government contracts fund public health programs in specific states. Impact investors and philanthropic foundations fund the technology platform and its rollout into new geographies. WHIMS software is licensed to other healthcare providers, who operate the technology platform in eight African countries and in Vietnam. Licensing income helps finance the network’s operations in India. Sujay Santra, Founder and CEO, iKure How is it structured and funded? Sujay Santra started iKure Techsoft in 2010 after a trip through rural India highlighted a gap in healthcare access. Santra had worked at Oracle before founding the startup. iKure is based in Kolkata, West Bengal. In September 2026, iKure Techsoft secured a Pre-Series A investment of $1.8 million from four investors. They include: Philips Foundation, World Diabetes Foundation, Bayer Foundation, and Prourgn, Japan. The funds will be used to hire more clinical staff, expand hub clinics, strengthen diagnostic capacity, and scale remote patient monitoring. Why is it innovative? The central idea behind iKure is that rural health services in India cannot be delivered simply by having doctors available in villages. India does not have enough doctors for this purpose, and even if it did, they probably would not want to live in remote regions. The appropriate strategy would support the limited number of doctors by pairing them with community health workers through a system that enables continuous patient treatment using technology. iKure is innovative for three reasons. First, its software platform is low-bandwidth enabled, so even when a community health worker is in a village with poor mobile connectivity, she can document patient information and get a doctor's advice. Second, these community health workers are women drawn from the same villages who have been trained to establish trust in addition to providing healthcare services. Third, digitizing patient records facilitates treatment continuity when different people care for the same patient. iKure community health worker taking blood pressure What is the impact? Impacted 34 million people and helped treat 4.5 million people across 12 Indian states Operates 10 hub centers Runs a community health worker (iCHA) network that supports last-mile villages in West Bengal, Odisha, and several other states of India Its software has been implemented in eight African nations and Vietnam, in addition to India Partnered with Japan-based METORI to include technology-backed eye screening to prevent avoidable blindness Intends to establish 200 hubs in India and cover 25-30 million more patients Community workers doing routine screening in rural town What needs to improve? The first area for improvement is its capital-intensive nature. Brick-and-mortar construction of hub clinics, payment and training of community health workers, and technology platform development – everything costs money. $1.8 million in Pre-Series A is significant capital but still relatively small compared to the 25-30 million Indians that iKure wants to serve. iKure will need additional fundraising to hit that goal. Indian health tech investments generally favor urban telemedicine over rural primary care. The second challenge is last-mile quality control. Local health care aides perform crucial work, but quality depends on the training, monitoring, and technological support. However, transitioning from a network operating across several states to 200 hubs across India means scaling this training and monitoring capacity without degrading quality. The third challenge is integrating into India's public health system. The highest possible impact would be if iKure could become an integrated partner of state health departments. But that takes time and is a long political process. Sources: Hub & spoke clinic set up - ikure TechSoft Global-healthcare-leaders-back-ikure iKure: A Decade of Success | Innovations in Healthcare iKure: Building stronger care pathways for communities across India iKure | IBM Sujay Santra’s iKure: Rural Healthcare on the Cloud iKure Innovating Rural Healthcare in India

What is the problem? In India, delivery problems are severe in rural areas. Large cities host Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, and many other last-mile delivery companies, all competing to deliver every order. However, in smaller towns, the network becomes sparser. While a store in a Tier 3 town may receive an order that would normally take only a few hours to deliver in Bangalore, it might take that same store several days to deliver an order in rural India. The problem is that the logistics sector is fragmented. Hundreds of thousands of small, independent logistics companies lack technology, national contracts, and the network needed to meet current e-commerce demand. As a result, three-quarters of potential customers in India live in areas with no logistics coverage. Loadshare last mile delivery provider What is the solution? Loadshare brings together fragmented small and medium-sized logistics businesses into a single logistics network. For instance, a local logistics firm in Bihar, a last-mile logistics player in Odisha, and a warehousing partner in Andhra Pradesh are all part of the Loadshare Network and gain access to e-commerce demand from across the country, which they would not have been able to reach on their own. Loadshare provides the technology (routing and tracking software, payment systems), the demand (from Meesho, Flipkart, among others), and the network scale (logistics partners in one part of the country can transfer deliveries to partners in other parts of the country). These smaller logistics companies continue running their own businesses, but are also part of a nationwide logistics network. Loadshare handles first-mile pickup, line-haul transportation, last-mile delivery, warehousing, and regional trucking. What is the business model? Loadshare operates as an asset-light logistics aggregation platform. It owns no trucks or warehouses. Instead, it earns revenue from the difference between what enterprise customers pay for a shipment and what it pays partner SMEs that handle individual legs of the delivery route. Enterprise customers pay for tech-driven deliveries across India, while logistics partners pay for access to the platform, the technology stack, and enterprise deals they otherwise couldn't secure. Loadshare provides services across multiple logistics verticals, including e-commerce, quick commerce, food delivery, B2B, D2C brands, and regional trucking. It has also developed its logistics software platform, which partners can use for their own business needs. Additionally, Loadshare now offers a financing solution that lets last-mile riders access electric vehicles through its partnership with British International Investment. Loadshare delivery provider How is it structured and funded? Loadshare Networks was founded in 2017 in Bengaluru by Raghuram Talluri (CEO), Tanmoy Karmakar, and Rakib Ahmed. Talluri had prior experience in the supply chain domain at large Indian companies before establishing Loadshare. Loadshare has raised about $60 million through eight funding rounds. Why is it innovative? Loadshare’s core value proposition is that India has all the necessary logistics workers and vehicles but lacks a way to connect them. Rather than building a nationwide logistics firm from scratch, Loadshare designed an asset-light technology platform that connects thousands of fragmented SMEs into a network of logistics companies. This is an incredibly scalable business because it has no assets and can therefore grow faster than any asset-heavy competitor. Furthermore, as every SME that joins the Loadshare network can access corporate contracts and technology it couldn't otherwise. Some Loadshare partners have scaled up to 10 times in volume since joining the network. Thus, it turns fragmented logistics networks into a proper infrastructure network. Another interesting case is EV financing, which gives individual last-mile riders access to EVs and financing that helps them stop using gas-based vehicles. What is the impact? Based on its own reporting and press coverage, Loadshare: Handles more than 550,000 shipments per day Delivered over 250,000 last-mile orders per day and over 300 tonnes per day in regional trucking at that time Operates in more than 500 towns across 18 Indian states Covers over 19,000+ pin codes across East India, all four South Indian states, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and key metros Has professionalized hundreds of regional logistics SMEs across India Created thousands of jobs for local youth in Tier 2, 3, and 4 towns Serves major e-commerce clients including Meesho, Flipkart, Pincode, and Shadowfax partnership customers Loadshare team members in Bangalore, India What needs to improve? First, delivery volumes in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities are lower than in metros, and the average order value is smaller, putting margins under pressure. Loadshare should consistently grow volumes in each new town to reach profitability. Second, logistics in India is a highly competitive industry. Several companies, such as Delhivery, Ecom Express, Shadowfax, and LetsTransport, compete for the same clients as Loadshare. However, Loadshare's asset-light operating model and partnerships with small businesses help it stand out. Finally, the EV transition presents a major challenge. An electrified fleet is capital-intensive and requires investments in charging infrastructure, government incentives, and riders' willingness to switch vehicles. British International Investment funding gives Loadshare an advantage here, but electrification will take years to become widespread. Sources: LoadShare Networks Raises INR 300 Cr To Intensify Warehousing Network Loadshare Investment Rationale Loadshare to expand its partner network LoadShare plans to expand its network in Tier 2 & 3 towns Logistics Startup LoadShare Networks raises Rs 100 Cr in Series B Funding

What is the problem? One-third of the fruits, vegetables, and flowers produced in India are wasted due to post-harvest losses. Growers must sell 90% of their produce immediately after harvest, even if it means selling at whatever price the local middleman demands. Because most produce has a finite shelf-life, growers in India can't wait for market prices to improve, send their produce to other regions, or convert their raw produce into higher-value products. Indian small-scale farmers, who produce almost all the food in the country, earn only a small share of the value generated by their produce because they can't store it. Produce solar-powered fridge What is the solution? Ecozen builds solar-powered refrigeration and irrigation solutions for smallholder farmers. It offers Ecofrost, a portable, solar-powered refrigeration chamber that maintains temperatures between 4°C and 10°C for 30 hours without batteries, using thermal energy storage. Ecofrost allows farmers to pre-cool their produce immediately after harvest. The solution can extend shelf life by days or weeks, depending on the produce, letting farmers wait for a higher price or export their produce. Ecotron is Ecozen's other flagship product, a solar-powered irrigation controller that uses the Internet of Things and predictive analytics to improve irrigation efficiency. Farmers using Ecotron technology have doubled their crop yields through consistent irrigation, regardless of grid reliability in their villages. Ecozen operates Eco-Connect, an online platform that connects farmers using EcoFrost chambers with buyers seeking pre-cooled produce. What is the business model? Ecozen is a climate-tech firm that operates for profit and earns income by selling multiple products. EcoFrost and EcoTron are available for purchase or lease. They sell their products directly to smallholder farmers, farmer-producer organizations (groups of farmers who pool their money), and to state governments, which use the units under their agricultural development programs. Founders of Ecozen How is it funded? Founded in 2010 as an incubated company at IIT Kharagpur by three engineering graduates, Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal, and Vivek Pandey, the company is headquartered in Pune. Devendra Gupta serves as the company's CEO. Ecozen has raised funding through multiple rounds. The capital raised totals well over $30 million in equity and debt. Why is it innovative? Ecozen’s key technological insight is that battery or diesel power is not a viable option for cold storage for smallholder farmers. Batteries increase costs, require replacement, and do not perform well in rural conditions. Diesel generators are costly to maintain and contradict the concept of a green energy system. Ecozen engineers designed Ecofrost to use thermal energy storage with metal plates that store cold energy, charged by solar energy during the daytime. These metal plates continue cooling the room for up to 30 hours after sunset. A farmer in villages with limited electricity can use cold storage 24/7. Similarly, the Ecotron pump controller uses the same design concept for irrigation, providing IoT solutions that allow farmers to control their pumps remotely via a mobile phone. Together, both products create a stack of solar-powered farm infrastructure. Ecofrost dominates India's solar cold storage market, accounting for more than 50% of installations. Ecozen solar pumps for irrigation What is the impact? Ecozen, a leader in climate-smart technology, has deployed over 2,500 Ecofrost solar cold rooms across 10+ countries and produced over 300,000 Ecotron pump controllers, helping 180,000 farmers. The company has facilitated 5.72 billion kWh of clean energy, prevented 50,000 metric tons of food waste, and enabled farmer profit increases of up to 40%. What needs to improve? Ecozen faces three major challenges. The first is affordability. Even at its lowest price, Ecozen's Ecofrost devices remain too expensive for poor farmers, so the Company developed the EcoFrost Mini at a lower price point. Reducing costs while maintaining quality is a real challenge. The second challenge is that Ecozen's success is tied to government and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. The third is diversifying beyond the agricultural sector. Ecozen has started using its technology in electric vehicle battery control. This is an interesting strategy, but it may distract from their main mission. Nonetheless, by building a solar-powered infrastructure system designed specifically for smallholder farms, Ecozen is closing one of the largest efficiency gaps in Indian agriculture and giving farmers a real chance to capture the value of what they grow. Sources: Climate-smart deeptech startup Ecozen raises first tranche of Series C funding led by Dare Ventures Solar-powered solutions spark Agricultural Rebirth Solar Cold Storage Company Ecozen Completes $6 Million Series A Funding - Mercom India India’s Ecozen closes Series A on $6m to help farmers reduce spoilage, navigate supply chain Ecozen Solutions - Ashden Ecozen: sustainable cooling for farming communities - Ashden Ecozen Solutions – an Unreasonable company Climate-Tech Company Ecozen Raised over $23 million in Debt Funding Solar-Powered Cold Storage: A Sustainable Solution for India's Agricultural Sector -

What is the problem? The Indian government has tried to resolve water access in rural India for decades. Almost all Indian villages have drinking water infrastructure available. Yet 150 million Indians still lack access to safe, affordable drinking water. Groundwater in several rural areas is contaminated with fluoride, arsenic, iron, or salinity. Surface water is also heavily polluted with agricultural fertilizers and sewage. Piped municipal water in villages is available intermittently. Rural women and girls suffer the most. Women often walk distances ranging from 2 to 5 kilometers to get water. Worse, the water they bring home is not always fit to drink. The problem isn't a shortage of water, rather the availability of clean water. Child walking water home What is the solution? “Piramal Sarvajal,” which means "water for all" in Sanskrit, provides communities with water treatment systems along with automatic water dispensers known as Water ATMs. Sarvajal’s standard configuration includes a village water purification system that purifies the groundwater using a five-step process, including media filtration, micron filtration, reverse osmosis, and UV filtration. The purified water is dispensed through a solar-powered, cloud-connected Water ATM. Villagers use prepaid RFID smart cards to draw water as needed from the Water ATM located near their residence. Each transaction takes place in real-time on a cloud platform, allowing Sarvajal to monitor water quality, system health, and other consumption parameters. However, Sarvajal does not operate the Water ATMs. Rather, it leases its machinery to a local entrepreneur to manage. Sarvajal Water ATM What is the business model? Sarvajal is a mission-driven social enterprise with two revenue streams. Villagers are charged based on the amount of water they use: 30 paise per liter, a fraction of bottled water prices. The franchise entrepreneur who manages the ATM pays a portion of revenue to the company for leasing the Water ATM. Corporate partners cover the system’s capital costs. Sarvajal covers its operational expenses with earned revenue and finances capital expenditures with external capital from Corporate partners or government subsidies. Woman using pre-paid card at dispenser Why is it innovative? Sarvajal shifted the paradigm of rural water as a service (government brings water for you) to a utility where you collect the water yourself. The Water ATM engineering allows this solution to scale. Each kiosk operates on solar energy, allowing it to function in villages with unstable electricity. Each kiosk is cloud-connected, so the company can control water quality, equipment status, and water consumption rates through the dashboard. Prepaid RFID cards help to avoid handling money every day, which makes running such a rural business difficult. Also, since the local operator is a franchisee and not an employee, it is much easier for Sarvajal to scale its business. What is the impact? Based on Sarvajal’s annual report: 765,000+ Daily Beneficiaries: Delivers a reliable, continuous source of safe drinking water to over three-quarters of a million people every day. 2.45+ Billion Liters Dispensed: Distributed an immense cumulative volume of safe, purified drinking water since inception. 1,965+ Active Touchpoints: Operates a vast decentralized network of local purification plants and solar-powered Water ATMs. 300+ Local Entrepreneurs Empowered: Drives economic growth by using a franchise model that turns local citizens into water entrepreneurs. Water ATM powered with solar panel owned by franchisee What needs to improve? Dependent on Corporate Social Responsibility funding, Sarvajal growth may stall should spending patterns change. Maintaining service quality across 300+ franchises across 20 states is challenging, and a poorly performing franchisee can negatively affect community perception across an entire region. Competition from government programs such as India’s Jal Jeevan Mission seeks to provide piped water connections to every rural household by 2028. If the government succeeds, the need for community water ATMs could decline. Sources: This social enterprise has made potable water accessible in 405 villages across 20 states in India Sarvajal Water ATM | Technology Exchange Lab How Piramal Sarvajal Using IoT To Tackle Safe Drinking Water Issue For Rural India Sarvajal Water ATM | Engineering For Change Piramal Sarvajal: Water ATMs making a splash in India Solar Water ATMs For Rural India Clean Water Innovation - Solarfacts.in

What is the problem? The problem of rural energy access might seem like it’s solved. The Saubhagya program, initiated by the Indian government, electrified nearly every village in India by 2019. However, this isn’t really the case. In Jharkhand, one of India’s poorest states, approximately 95% of villages have been provided with an electricity connection to the national grid. But the power supply there is erratic. The voltage is unstable, and blackouts can last for days. So farmers can’t use irrigation pumps or operate rice hullers and flour mills. Students often have to study with kerosene lamps despite the power lines installed near their homes. Mlinda solar farm What is the solution? Mlinda develops and installs mini solar grids for villages that aren’t adequately served by the main grid. A basic mini solar grid from Mlinda includes a 23 to 30 kWp solar system with battery backup and can be connected to village houses, stores, farms, and workshops. The mini-grids are built specifically for productive use. Single-phase electricity is used for lighting and small pumps. Three-phase electricity is used for oil processors, wheat millers, rice hullers, irrigation water pumps, and other machines that help farmers and entrepreneurs keep working without interruption. Mlinda also helps set up the businesses that use the power. It trains local operators, connects farmers to microfinance sources, and helps entrepreneurs buy the equipment that turns reliable electricity into real economic activity. What is the business model? Mlinda operates as a hybrid nonprofit and for-profit entity. Mlinda’s revenues come from households and businesses that pay to connect to its mini-grids. Rates are set to reflect the true cost of storage: roughly ₹22 per kWh during the day and ₹44 per kWh at night. This pricing is 3 to 7 times higher than the subsidy-funded central grid rate. However, customers pay because they get 24-hour reliable power instead of a few unreliable hours. Grants and donor funding cover the capital costs of installing new mini-grids, since customer revenue is not sufficient to cover the upfront investment in solar panels, batteries, and inverters. Mlinda team How is it structured & funded? Mlinda launched in Jharkhand in 2015, starting in Gumla district, one of the state's most underserved regions. It has now expanded to West Bengal. Mlinda is a certified Rural Energy Service Provider under India's national mini-grid framework. Mlinda's financing comes from a combination of institutional partners, foundations, and companies. HSBC has been one of Mlinda's major partners in its expansion programs, including a model that layers women-led entrepreneurship on top of the distribution of mini-grid infrastructure. Why is it innovative? The success of most rural electrification programs is measured by 'number of connections,' meaning the number of wires that go into homes or businesses. Success for Mlinda is measured by the economic activity driven by the business, measured by four steps. First, engaging the community and ensuring that 75% of households in the village agree before proceeding with deployment. Second, conducting thorough load analysis and identifying every machine that the mini-grid will run. Third, hire operation and maintenance staff living within the village to quickly repair any problems that arise. Finally, the development team sets up micro-enterprises to consume the power produced. Together, these steps turn a mini-grid from a piece of infrastructure into a rural economic system. What is the impact? Based on Mlinda's own reporting and third-party case studies: Installed 45 community mini-grids in Jharkhand (typical capacity 23 to 30 kWp), plus around 310 pico and micro-grids and 13 mini-grids across Jharkhand and West Bengal Serves approximately 10,500 households and 40,000 people Powers around 1,271 to 1,300+ micro-enterprises Independent studies of similar Jharkhand mini-grid programs found farm yields rose by roughly 30% in a two- to three-year period thanks to assured irrigation electricity Mlinda implementation team What needs to improve? There are three structural obstacles that Mlinda faces. First, the unit economics need to cover capital and operating expenses, yet the customers who benefit from Mlinda are among the poorest people in India. This is a constant balancing act, which explains why Mlinda relies on grants for capital expenditure while covering operational expenses through customer sales. Second, Mlinda has operated in Jharkhand for a decade and serves roughly 40,000 people. This is a good number, but the total rural population of Jharkhand stands at 25 million, a small share of India’s overall rural power deficit. It would take a lot more capital investment to scale from 45 mini-grids to hundreds or even thousands of mini-grids. Third, regulations regarding the use of mini-grids in India have changed over the past decade, while the central grid expands into areas where mini-grids have been deployed. Once the central grid arrives in a particular area, the mini-grid provider may lose customers who turn to the subsidized energy source despite its unreliability. Sources: RENEWABLE ENERGY FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES Solar Mini-grids are Spurring Rural Development in India Mlinda launches solar mini-grid in Jharkhand to boost rural electrification & women’s empowerment Solar mini/micro-grid deployment Creating Jobs and Income: How Solar Mini-Grids Are Making a Difference in Rural India Solar Mini Grids in Rural India Solar mini-grids fuel women-led enterprises in Jharkhand’s Gumla district Electrifying rural India: A Case Study on Mlinda's solar mini-grids Solar Micro-Grid Technology for Remote Villages in India: Case Study & Impact

What is the problem? Rural healthcare in Pakistan is plagued by two problems. One problem is that 210 million Pakistanis lack access to basic health care. Rural women are the worst affected, as cultural traditions discourage them from visiting clinics run by male doctors. The other problem is the “Doctor Brides” problem—meaning that Pakistan produces many female doctors and then loses them. Around 70% of medical students in Pakistan are female, but fewer than 23% become practicing physicians after completing their education. They leave their studies or quit working after marriage due to family pressure and regulations that make it difficult for them to work in hospitals full-time. Sehat Kahani community clinic What is the solution? Sehat Kahani means “story of health” in Urdu, and it’s a telemedicine portal that addresses both these problems. Doctors, particularly female doctors, who abandoned their profession can work part-time from home using the Sehat Kahani platform. Patients living in cities download the consumer app and, within 60 seconds, get connected to a doctor. They can also have their lab tests and medicines delivered to their homes. Patients living in rural areas who might not have a phone visit the e-Health clinic managed by a trained community health worker. The health worker arranges the video consultation with the doctor, translates medical jargon into the local language, and assists the patient in following up on the prescription and referral. Sehat Kahani sponsored community center What is the business model? Sehat Kahani is a for-profit health-tech social enterprise that generates income from three sources. 1) Corporate wellness partnerships, in which companies pay to provide their employees with access to telemedicine services. At least 800 firms had partnered with Sehat Kahani as of 2023. 2) Direct payments from consumers for on-demand consultations, laboratory services, and drug deliveries via the mobile application, which is used in more than 310 cities and towns in Pakistan. 3) Contracts with government bodies, non-governmental organizations, and foreign donors to establish e-Health Clinics for rural, refugee, and internally displaced populations. This income allows Sehat Kahani to serve people who would never be able to afford the full costs, whereas corporate and consumer income helps sustain the platform’s operations. How is it structured and funded? Sehat Kahani was founded in 2017 by Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram and Dr. Iffat Zafar Aga, who are both doctors. The company is headquartered in Karachi. The total capital raised is about $4.2 million. The Series A deal made Sehat Kahani the first-ever all-women-led Pakistani startup to close a Series A round. The company has also received grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GSMA, and the World Health Organization. Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram and Dr. Iffat Zafar Aga, Founders of Sehat Kahani Why is it innovative? Pakistan does not need more doctors. It needs its doctors to keep working under conditions that suit them. In telemedicine, a doctor can consult from home during hours she selects, without traveling to a hospital or staying there during night shifts. Another innovative aspect of Sehat Kahani’s solution is the creation of the e-Health clinic model. In rural areas of Pakistan, patients may have no access to the Internet at home, or even if they do, they may be reluctant to use an app or discuss health issues in an online video consultation. Sehat Kahani employs community health workers who run the clinic, arrange the online video consultation for the patient, translate necessary medical terminology into the local dialect, and assist the patient in implementing the instructions after the consultation. The company is now developing AI-based predictive models for clinical decision-making and precision medicine. What is the impact? Sehat Kahani has made the following impact: Enlisted a global network of more than 8,000 health-care professionals, mostly female (about 90%) Started 62 e-Health clinics in Pakistan Serving 800+ corporate clients and 10 million lives in Pakistan Offered more than 4.3 million consultations Sehat Kahani doctor on a tele-health appointment What needs to improve? Sehat Kahani faces three key challenges. First, venture investment in Pakistan's health-tech space is very limited. For instance, Sehat Kahani's $2.7 million Series A was the largest round for any telehealth start-up in Pakistan, underscoring the market's small size. Sehat Kahani will need to raise far more venture capital to achieve its proclaimed vision of expansion beyond Pakistan and international impact, and international impact investors are not always interested in investing in Pakistan. Second, implementing the e-Health clinic concept carries high costs. There is a need to recruit, train, and supervise community health workers. Clinics in rural areas require advanced equipment, reliable connectivity, and logistics for delivering medicines and laboratory tests. Scaling from 62 clinics to hundreds will significantly increase operational complexity. Third, the transition to AI-powered decision-making raises serious concerns about patient data privacy, informed consent, and algorithmic bias in a country with paper-based medical records and evolving health data regulations. Sources: Sehat Kahani makes history as the first all-female-led company from Pakistan to raise $2.7 million series-A funding round Women-led Pakistani telehealth startup bags $3M Series A funding Sehat Kahani is showing Pakistan that digital health services can change lives – for both patients and doctors How Sehat Kahani came out the other side of the funding crunch Impactful Innovation: Insights from evaluating Sehat Kahani

What is the problem? In rural Colombia, a lone teacher manages the village school. She teaches five grades simultaneously in a single room with no library, a limited number of books, and inadequate electricity. These students skip weeks of schooling during harvest periods, fail to continue schooling because of a lack of income, and finally abandon schooling because they cannot cope. Escuela Nueva classroom Secondary school enrollment rates among rural children in Latin America are half those of urban children, and completion rates are even lower. This issue is not about governments' unwillingness to develop rural schools. The problem lies in the rural school itself, in the way it was built over the last one hundred years. The idea of a school assumes a teacher for each grade, a separate classroom for each subject, and a pupil who comes every day. This assumption does not hold in a village with two teachers for sixty pupils in seven grades. What is the solution? The model of rural education operated by Fundación Escuela Nueva is called Escuela Nueva, which translates as "New School." Rather than viewing the multi-grade class as a bug, the model treats it as a feature. Children learn through self-paced guides, allowing them to progress at their own pace rather than in tandem with the whole class. Older children help younger ones learn, and both gain a deeper understanding of what is being taught. Desks are arranged in circles to foster cooperation rather than in rows facing the instructor. Community members, including parents, become part of the school as local authorities on agriculture, climate, and family history. Teachers form networks of “microcentros” where they receive training and exchange materials, and as a result become less isolated in their work. The classroom is completely different from the conventional one and yields results unlike those achieved in traditional rural schools. Escuela Nueva school mates What is the business model? Fundación Escuela Nueva is a Colombian nonprofit foundation (also known as an NGO). Its income comes from four revenue streams: government funding to implement the model in public schools, learning guides for grades one through nine, teacher training, and consultancy for applying the model in new environments. There are also grants and donations to support this work. Fundación Escuela Nueva was designed as a hybrid model. Once the government incorporates the Escuela Nueva model into its policy, the organization earns revenue by operating the model rather than by fundraising to prove its necessity. That is the reason for its longevity. For the past 40 years, the organization has not had to raise funds to survive but rather to prove itself. How is it structured and funded? Vicky Colbert is the founder of the Escuela Nueva model, established in 1976. In 1987, she founded the independent NGO Fundación Escuela Nueva to ensure the model's quality while implementing it with the help of the Colombian government. Colbert is a Colombian sociologist with an educational background from the Universidad Javeriana and Stanford University. Additionally, she served as Vice-Minister of Education in Colombia. Because the organization is a nonprofit foundation, its funding history is not venture-style. The organization received financial support from institutional partners such as the World Bank, UNESCO, the Inter-American Development Bank, USAID, and others. In 2017, Vicky Colbert became the first recipient of the Yidan Prize for Educational Development, garnering $3.9 million in project funding. Vicky Colbert, Founder of Escuela Nueva Why is it innovative? While a traditional approach views multi-grading as a weakness, Escuela Nueva treats it as a peer-learning environment. While a traditional approach views absence as a discipline problem, Escuela Nueva has created self-paced learning guides to help students catch up after they return from absence. In the traditional approach, teacher isolation is seen as an issue, Escuela Nueva creates a network of teachers across a region. This is not a subtle shift but a drastic one that requires the complete re-conceptualization of educational resources, teacher training programs, and parental involvement in schools. According to a 1998 comparative analysis by UNESCO, Colombia was the only country in the region where rural primary education outperformed urban education. World Bank studies found lower dropout rates, higher test scores, and better self-esteem and civic behavior among students. Mixed classroom setting What is the impact? Based on Fundación Escuela Nueva's annual report: The organization has reached 5 million children directly, according to Stanford Graduate School of Education At its peak in Colombia, Escuela Nueva operated in approximately 24,000 rural schools It became national policy for rural education in Colombia during the 1980s and 1990s The model has been adapted in at least 16 countries across three continents, with some sources citing shared presence in up to 40 countries Countries that have adopted or adapted the model include Guatemala, Brazil, Panama, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guyana, the Philippines, Vietnam, Uganda, and Zambia The 1998 UNESCO study ranked Colombia second in the world for rural primary education outcomes Fundación Escuela Nueva has built additional versions of the model for internally displaced children, urban low-income schools, and post-conflict communities Classroom in Escuela Nueva What needs to improve? Escuela Nueva Fundación's 40-year track record demonstrates the validity of its model, but this very experience hinders the organization's ability to secure the seed funding typically available to younger social enterprises. The second issue related to scaling is quality control. Since the Colombian government adopted the Escuela Nueva model as national policy, its implementation has been inconsistent across regions and among teachers. In some cases, implementation has been true to the program, and the results have been strong, but other schools have taken the name and implemented a less effective solution. This is a risk for any social enterprise that tries to scale through government policy rather than its own operations. The last challenge is adapting the Escuela Nueva model for the digital age. The Escuela Nueva learning guides remain largely paper-based because the model was developed before the internet era. Sources: Developing the ‘New School’ model in Colombia and beyond Transformative learning at scale Escuela Nueva Has Transformed Rural Education in Colombia and Now Founder Vicky Colbert Is Expanding Her Methodology Across the Globe Clara Victoria Colbert | Ashoka Fundación Escuela Nueva Responding to Local Conditions: The Evolution of Fundación Escuela Nueva’s Approach to Teaching & Learning in Rural Colombia and Beyond | International Education News

What is the problem? In Africa, more than 300 million women don’t have access to reliable electricity, a major obstacle to improving health, education, and economic prospects in rural Africa. In rural Nigeria, Tanzania, and Kenya, people cook with stoves that emit poisonous fumes in their homes; children learn in poorly lit kerosene environments that hurt their eyes, and businesses shut down early because there is no light. The costs are enormous. But the problem is not technology. Multinational solar firms have created good products, but they can’t reach the last mile due to poor infrastructure. In these areas, money is scarce, and customers don’t trust unfamiliar sales representatives whom they’ll probably never see again. Even in villages where solar products exist, women don’t have enough money, credit, or decision-making authority to purchase them. Solar Sister energy products What is the solution? Solar Sister trains African women entrepreneurs in rural areas to fight energy poverty in their communities. Each recruit receives a “Business in a Bag” kit, consisting of solar lanterns, solar home systems, phone chargers, and clean cookstoves, along with training in sales, bookkeeping, and customer service. Women then sell these kits to people in their community. Solar Sister addresses two challenges at once: customers receive energy from a reliable source they already trust, while the women who sell earn an independent income and increase their status within their community. Solar Sister also has a network of Business Development Associates who mentor, train, and assist entrepreneurs and help them troubleshoot problems in the field. Business in a Bag Kit What is the business model? Solar Sister operates as a social enterprise and a nonprofit, using a hybrid business model to generate revenue. According to its annual report, funding sources include grants (about 47%), donations (about 15%), product sales (about 32%), and other sources (about 4%). Solar Sister Entrepreneurs receive a percentage of each product sold, so their income depends on sales volume. Solar Sister imports its products from certified producers that meet World Bank Lighting Global standards. The organization deliberately chooses not to push its Business Development Associates to generate revenue, so that mentorship stays focused on impact rather than commissions. This creates a structural tension every social enterprise faces: how to balance mission with the financial sustainability that keeps the mission alive. Who founded Solar Sister? Katherine Lucey, a former investment banker, founded Solar Sister in 2010 after visiting rural Africa and seeing women cooking over open fires and children studying by kerosene light. Lucey started with ten women entrepreneurs from Uganda. Today, Solar Sister operates in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Kenya, and previously operated in Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan. In September 2025, Solar Sister entered into a partnership with Koolboks, an off-grid refrigeration company, under which the organization pledged to equip 1,000 women entrepreneurs with solar refrigeration technology in Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania by 2028. Founder of Solar Sister, Katherine Lucey, and Solar Sister team member Why is it innovative? In Africa, the most common last-mile distribution systems employ salespeople and send them into villages. Solar Sister is different from those models. Instead of recruiting and employing salespeople, Solar Sister recruits local women and teaches them how to build their own businesses. Not only does this solve the long-standing trust issue in rural product distribution, but it also creates a multiplying effect. All Solar Sister entrepreneurs become role models for other women and lower the cultural barrier to entering the business for future women. The organization tracks impact carefully: every dollar invested in a Solar Sister Entrepreneur generates approximately $48 in economic benefits in the first year alone, split between the entrepreneur's earned income and her customers' savings on kerosene, batteries, and mobile charging fees. A single $18 solar lantern saves a customer roughly $163 over five years compared to kerosene. What is the impact? Trained over 12,500 Solar Sister Entrepreneurs across Nigeria, Tanzania, and Kenya Reached 5.9 million people with clean energy products Generated approximately $231 million in economic benefits in off-grid communities Mitigated approximately 2.2 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions Solar Sister Business Development Associates What needs to improve? The first challenge is that about 60% of the company's revenue comes from grants and donations. There is always a risk that shifts in the donor community's priorities or cuts in institutional giving could jeopardize Solar Sister's survival. The second structural barrier is low smartphone penetration among Solar Sister Entrepreneurs. On the one hand, this means Solar Sister Entrepreneurs are serving disadvantaged women; but on the other hand, it limits the digital solutions that can integrate into Solar Sister operations. Finally, scaling in rural Africa is slow because of poor roads, inconsistent cash flow, and the need to build relationships over time. However, Solar Sister has been operating for 15 years and has engaged 11,000 entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, this remains relatively insignificant, given that 300 million women in Africa still lack access to electricity. Growing the entrepreneur network into the tens of thousands, and eventually the hundreds of thousands, will require capital, new country expansions, and product innovations similar to the Koolboks refrigeration partnership that push beyond lighting into productive-use energy. Sources Solar Sister Champions Women's Empowerment and Clean Energy Women, Empowerment and Development Meets Sustainable Energy: Solar Sister Sustainable Energy for All: Empowering Women | United Nations Solar Sister| Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan | UNFCCC Solar Sister: A women-led movement for clean energy in Africa Clean energy meets women’s enterprise: Solar Sister and Koolboks chart a path for inclusive green growth From Energy Scarcity to Entrepreneurial Success for 10,000 Women Top 20 Donors Funding Solar Energy Projects in Africa

What is the problem? There are over 1.1 billion individuals living with vision loss worldwide, and much of this visual impairment is preventable. About 90% of these individuals live in Africa and Asia. About 90% of cases of visual loss are either preventable or treatable with simple interventions such as corrective lenses and cataract surgery. Yet millions continue to lose their sight because health care systems fail to identify these cases. In rural areas of Kenya, Pakistan, or Zimbabwe, one ophthalmologist may serve one million people. Eye screening equipment is costly and not easily portable. Even when screening takes place, it is difficult for patients to attend a second visit, during which they receive the actual treatment. This is a healthcare problem with a paradox at its core. The necessary medical knowledge exists, but the necessary medical manpower is lacking. Peek Vision eye screening mobile app What is the solution? Peek Vision developed a software and data intelligence platform that turns any mobile phone into a clinically proven eye-screening instrument. Community health workers, teachers, and non-expert staff screen vision using the Peek application on any phone, whether in a remote village or a school compound. The system captures outcomes in a cloud-based data platform, automatically refers patients who require treatment, and even sends reminder messages to prompt patients to attend appointments. Program managers can see real-time data on where patients are lost in the process and take steps to ensure that they don’t fall through the cracks. The innovation does not replace ophthalmologists. Instead, it replaces paperwork, speculation, and location-based barriers that preclude patients from receiving care from an ophthalmologist. What is the business model? Peek Vision Ltd operates as a not-for-profit social enterprise owned by the Peek Vision Foundation, a registered charity in the UK. Revenue is generated through software licensing payments from NGOs, government departments, and hospitals that use the platform, as well as grants and philanthropic funding. All profits are reinvested in the business. The business model differs from traditional social enterprise models, in which a social enterprise is backed by a venture capital firm and earns income by selling products directly to end users. Peek Vision does not sell products to individuals or operate clinics. Instead, Peek Vision serves as the operating system for existing eye care projects run by governments and NGOs, and earns revenue by improving their efficiency. Who founded Peek Vision? Andrew Bastawrous, Co-Founder of Peek Vision Andrew Bastawrous, an ophthalmologist from the London School of Hygiene, co-founded Peek Vision in 2013. In 2015, Peek Vision became a social enterprise and, in 2016, transferred to the Peek Vision Foundation. The headquarters are in the UK and Botswana, with a subsidiary in Nigeria. Why is it innovative? There are three distinct characteristics of Peek Vision that few other eye health organizations share. First, Peek Vision’s screening application is clinically validated. The results provided by the mobile app meet the accuracy standards doctors use in real-world medical decisions. It turns a smartphone into more than a consumer application. Second, for Peek, data is the product. Program managers can track in real-time where referrals go unserviced and which villages lack services. Eye health transitions from a series of independent camps into a managed process. Third, Peek Vision is developing financial innovations in addition to technological ones. Their “See Now Pay Later” program in Uganda works with Opportunity Bank Uganda. Patients' incomes increase after cataract surgery, usually exceeding the costs of the procedure itself. Under the “See Now Pay Later” program, the patient can receive treatment and pay it back over 12-18 months, with the hospital prepaid. What is the impact? Based on Peek Vision's 2025 annual report: Peek operates in 12 countries across Africa and Asia Peek Vision has screened more than 18 million people since 2018 Over 1.7 million people have been connected to care they would not otherwise have received A comparative study reported that programs using Peek Vision screened 2.5 times more people and connected 16 times more people to care at six times lower cost per patient than non-Peek programs Kenya's Vision Impact Project, which uses Peek, screened 1 million people in its first year and now reaches over 150,000 people connected to eye care services in 10 counties Botswana became the first country to commit to using Peek for a nationwide government-funded program to screen every schoolchild and teacher Cataract detection using Peek Vision app What needs to improve? First, Peek Vision's main challenge is not adoption. It is capacity. In many countries where Peek operates, the health system screens more people than it can treat. Peek's technology can flag one million patients who need cataract surgery, but if a country has one ophthalmologist per million people, those patients still wait years for treatment. The second challenge facing Peek is data governance. As Peek expands, it stores sensitive medical data for millions of low-income patients across dozens of jurisdictions. Maintaining trust with governments, partners, and patients depends on strong data protection standards that will only become more complex as the platform grows. Lastly, the demand for services is high. According to forecasts, the number of people affected by vision loss worldwide will nearly double by 2050, reaching 1.8 billion. Even if Peek continues to grow, the problem will still outpace any one organization's ability to handle it. Sources: Peek Vision Foundation Our Impact - Peek Vision Annual Reviews - Peek Vision Kenya’s Vision Impact Project reaches one million people in its first year Smartphone technology for innovative targeted treatment of poor vision and blindness Software And Data Intelligence Platform For Eye Health How Peek Vision Went From A Rural Kenyan Clinic To Over 20 Million People Screened Expanding Eye Health With Peek Vision Peek Vision connects one million to eye care

What is the problem? There are about 44 million tiny businesses (aka ultra-microenterprises) in Indonesia, and most are run by women. However, the formal banking system does not serve them. 49 percent of rural women lack access to formal financial services, and Indonesia's Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) financing gap is estimated at around $21 billion. For a woman who owns a batik business operating out of her house in Central Java, or another who runs a stall selling jamu drinks in a rural area outside Java, there are few alternatives. These women could take loans from moneylenders at extremely high interest rates, borrow money from family, or forgo the working capital their businesses needed to develop. These businesses consider these ultra-micro entrepreneurs too small, too risky, or too rural to fund. Also, the women have no collateral, no credit history, and no way to prove they can pay back the loan. Indonesian clay artisan and customer of Amartha What is the solution? Amartha created an online lending system for women whom banks decline to serve. The company links women in remote areas into cooperatives, typically comprising 12-15 people who borrow individually but guarantee each other’s repayment of debts. The company sends field agents to visit cooperative members every week to teach them how to manage money. Amartha uses an AI credit-scoring model that evaluates more than 800 characteristics to assess borrowers’ repayment ability without traditional credit history. Indonesian retail investors and international impact investors fund microloans, earning a return while channeling capital to rural women who could not otherwise access it. The model turns underserved borrowers into a legitimate asset class. Andy Taufan Garuda Putra, Founder of Amartha and Amartha Entrepreneurs What is the business model? Amartha is a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending marketplace licensed by the OJK (Indonesia's Financial Services Authority). Company revenue is generated through loan servicing fees on the borrower side and platform fees on the investor side. The company has developed the following financial products: Poket, an electronic wallet for payments and transfers Celengan, a savings product with a fixed 5 to 8 percent annual return and no administrative fees AmarthaFin, which allows borrowers to become lenders to other borrowers through the app. Through this expansion, the firm has become a financial services company that offers a range of financial solutions and earns income throughout the customer lifecycle. Amartha field officer with an entrepreneur How is it funded? Amartha was founded in 2010 by Andi Taufan Garuda Putra as a traditional microfinance company and transitioned to fintech in 2016. One of its most recent funding successes was $17.5 million in equity capital from Accion's Digital Transformation Fund in June 2024. In June 2025, three European Development Finance Institutions pledged a $55 million loan facility, with $25 million from Swedfund, $15 million from Finnfund, and $15 million from BIO. This facility is part of a larger IFC-led syndicated facility of up to $199 million. Why is it innovative? There are three key things that make Amartha's technology and business model unique. First, Amartha's AI credit-scoring model considers more than 800 variables, including demographic data, online activity, transaction history, and repayment performance, and helps Amartha evaluate people without credit histories and extend loans in days rather than weeks. As a result, Amartha is able to offer credit to millions of women whom commercial banks wouldn't lend to. Second, Amartha's business model is the opposite of the conventional microfinance model. Unlike the latter, which channels capital from rich investors through NGOs to borrowers, Amartha has a two-sided platform where borrowers, retail investors, and institutional investors are all parties on the same platform. Finally, Amartha's introduction of savings and microloan products allows rural women to borrow and lend money at once. A woman who receives a $300 loan to purchase raw materials can invest 10,000 rupiah ($0.6) in Amartha's savings product. Entrepreneur scanning the Amartha app What is the impact? Amartha has: Disbursed more than 35 trillion rupiah in working capital loans (approximately $2.2 billion at recent exchange rates) Reached 3.3 million MSMEs Operates in more than 50,000 villages across Indonesia Over 70% of loans underwritten outside of Java, targeting the country's most underserved regions More than 90% of borrowers are women What needs to improve? Amartha's scale creates its own set of challenges. Being responsible for financing ultra-micro loans for 3.3 million people means assessing risks across thousands of villages with diverse local economies, climate conditions, and social processes. Any natural catastrophe or problems with the delivery of goods in one area can trigger waves of defaults that no AI model can predict. The company's dependence on international debt financing also exposes it to currency risk, because although Amartha lends money in rupiah, some of its funds come from foreign lenders that rely on exchange rate stability. Another risk associated with Amartha's operations is regulatory risk. Over recent years, OJK has stepped up its supervision of P2P lending platforms, and for Amartha's expansion to continue, it must maintain its license and government support. Finally, the AI credit-scoring model that enables such rapid lending to so many customers is only effective to the extent that the assumptions underlying it are valid. As the number of variables in the model approaches 800, algorithmic discrimination among some borrower categories increases. Amartha should invest in audits to ensure its platform continues to serve the women it was built for. Sources: IFC and Amartha Partner to Support Women-owned Microenterprises in Indonesia Accion Digital Transformation Fund invests $17.5M in Amartha Fintech Pioneer Amartha Secures $55M from European Development Finance Institutions to Empower Women Entrepreneurs in Rural Indonesia Amartha improves access to finance for women in rural Indonesia Finnfund invests in Amartha Paving the way to Financial Health from the Grassroots: How Amartha is Empowering Women Micro-Entrepreneurs Fintech Pioneer Amartha Secures $55M from European Development Finance Institutions IFC and Amartha Partner to Support Women-owned Microenterprises in Indonesia

What is the problem? There are approximately 1.6 million small-scale farmers in Zambia, and they grow maize on small plots of land. However, maize farming is not an effective means of lifting people out of poverty, as it depletes soil, fetches low market prices, and forces farmers to depend on a single crop in a country whose climate has become increasingly unpredictable. The earnings of an average smallholder maize farmer are $113 per hectare. At the same time, international buyers of high-value legumes such as soybeans, groundnuts, beans, and cowpeas cannot find reliable suppliers in Zambia. Farmers do not cultivate appropriate varieties, lack seeds, and have no relationship with the processing company that pays premium prices. Good Nature Agro trainer with female farmer in Zambia What is the solution? Good Nature Agro teaches smallholder farmers to replace maize farming with high-value legumes by providing certified seeds, funding, technical expertise, and guaranteeing a market for their produce. Legumes replenish soil nitrogen and are more climate-resilient than maize, adding an environmental benefit. The organization operates across the entire legume value chain, from seed breeding to processing. The firm has two revenue streams. The first revenue stream is Good Nature Seed, which sells special legume seeds to farmers. The second revenue stream is the Good Nature Source, which offers farmers contracts to grow special varieties of legumes for food processors and agribusiness firms. Good Nature Agro enables farmers to get higher incomes and access to healthier soil and buyers get reliable supply. Fieldnut farmer with Good Natur Agro field supervisor What is the business model? Good Nature Agro is a for-profit social enterprise with two revenue sources. Around 95% of revenues come from the sale of legume seeds through Good Nature Seed, and the other part of revenues is generated by Source – the company that purchases legumes from contracted farmers and sells them to processors and exporters. In relation to Source, the company enters into supply contracts with buyers specifying particular varieties of legumes, and next, the company contracts with smallholder farmers to produce those varieties. Thus, speculative agriculture is turned into contract farming, and smallholders’ incomes become predictable. Reportedly the company has been profitable since 2016. Good Nature Agro factory team How is it funded? Good Nature Agro was founded in 2014 by three people: Carl Jensen, Sunday Silungwe, and Kellan Hays. Carl is a fifth-generation farmer from America who was introduced to Sunday Silungwe, who is a citizen of Zambia, in an agricultural design lab organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Good Nature Agro is based in Chipata, Zambia. In October 2020, Good Nature Agro raised a $2.1 million Series A round of financing led by Goodwell Investments, with FINCA Ventures and Global Partnerships. In 2025, it closed an $8.5 million Series B financing led by OikoCredit International. Why is it innovative? Most agricultural development initiatives in Africa focus on improving one element of the farming process at a time – improved seed quality, training, or better market access. Good Nature Agro addresses all aspects of the value chain simultaneously. First, it breeds its own seeds that suit the smallholder environment. Second, the company places skilled trainers for farmer groups of 40. Third, the company offers loans repayable in seeds after harvest, and locks in contracts with processors before farmers even plant. Fourth, the company ensures that contracts with processors are signed before farmers plant anything. Last but not least, the company uses an application called Smallholdr to track the income of farmers and helps farmers set and monitor concrete financial goals like sending children to school. What is the impact? As of 2025, the company is working with 15,000 smallholder farmers. The company has grown the average income of the farmers it works with from $113 per hectare to $357 per hectare. The Farmers in the Good Nature Agro network earn 3 to 4 times more than they would from cash crops like maize on the same land. Zambia farmers now export to Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, and Europe. The company is aiming for a 50% female registration rate among new farmers, and 43% of the Company trainers are women. Good Nature Agro seed processing plant What needs to improve? Zambia’s legume market size is $39 million. However, the company captures only a small share of the market. Scaling beyond Zambia to other Southern African countries requires substantial investment and specialized agronomic knowledge for each country involved. The firm itself must also make some tough choices regarding its scaling. The founder of the company has made it clear that advisory services to farmers on a one-on-one basis play an important role in the business, but this model becomes more and more difficult and costly as the number of farmers that the company serves rises above 15,000 and even harder at the 60,000+ farmer mark, which is the company's stated growth target. The biggest issue facing the company is climate change risk. Although legumes are more resilient than maize, legumes remain vulnerable to erratic rainfall patterns in Zambia. Sources: Good Nature Agro Secures $8.5 Million Series B Good Nature Agro secures $2.1 million funding to scale production Zambia Agro-tech startup Good Nature Agro raises $2.1 million - Tech In Africa Good Nature Agro Impact Story Good Nature Agro Products Ltd - Enterprise Zambia Challenge Fund Good Nature Agro - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding FINCA Ventures | Impact Investing in Africa’s Future