{"id":200,"date":"2017-08-02T13:09:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T13:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/2020\/12\/23\/how-social-businesses-are-bridging-the-last-mile\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:44:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T06:14:27","slug":"how-social-businesses-are-bridging-the-last-mile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/gu-in\/how-social-businesses-are-bridging-the-last-mile\/","title":{"rendered":"How social businesses are bridging the last mile"},"content":{"rendered":"

In most developing countries, governments and private enterprises continue to grapple with the problem of finding ways to reach people who are geographically cut off from basic infrastructure and distribution channels. This is a real problem that social businesses must address as they seek to serve the base-of-the-pyramid (BOP) customer while also becoming financially sustainable.<\/em> In India, we are seeing some unique examples of creativity at work as businesses make strategic choices in their pursuit of the last-mile consumer.<\/p>

Leveraging local networks seems to be one way that Indian social enterprises across sectors are reaching last-mile customers.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Partnering locally<\/h3>

Leveraging local networks seems to be one way that Indian social enterprises across sectors are reaching last-mile customers. The Delhi-based Simpa Networks<\/a>, a rural off-grid solar energy supplier, employs this strategy to bring affordable and clean energy to villages.<\/p>

Less than 5% of India uses solar energy today<\/a>, with most rural communities relying, instead, on kerosene lanterns, candles and batteries–all of which provide dim lighting at best. The task at hand for Simpa is to convince customers that its low-cost products offer an effective, reliable and low-risk solution.<\/p>

\"What<\/a><\/div>

It has partnered with local village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs) called Urja Mitras<\/em> (energy buddies), recruited from target villages, to take this solution to the consumers. These VLEs, generally influencers in their local communities—shop owners, teachers, religious leaders or commercial sales agents—are critical to building trust in consumer’s minds for Simpa’s technology. They receive product training and marketing support, and now have a new source of income that incentivises them to spread solar energy in their communities.<\/p>

Bhoomee<\/a>, the Bengaluru-based agricultural enterprise, uses rural touch points or ‘kendras’<\/em> as a key component of its operations as it serves a network of over 150,000 farmers. It provides farmers with real-time market information on crops and harvest supply (through an online portal and call centres), and connects them with traders. Like Simpa, Bhoomee invests in building a local labour force comprising VLEs who help sell its information services to farmers. Expanding this rural network continues to be instrumental to building Bhoomee’s overall operations and marketing to last-mile rural farmers, as first-time users tend to be sceptical about the technology working on a real-time basis<\/a>.<\/p>

While both ventures seem to have cracked the last-mile challenge by tapping into local sales networks, building such a salesforce requires attention in two areas:<\/p>