Country: India
Sector: Last Mile Logistics
RubanBridge, a rural last-mile services company, connects these rural consumers with other rural and urban suppliers through an assisted-commerce platform. The model is completely focused on serving rural consumers, including BoP population, and includes products and services that are relevant to, and demanded by the rural population. With the equity investment from C4D Partners, RubanBridge is creating employment opportunities by recruiting people at the village level and making products more accessible to the rural populace.
The hinterlands in India consist of about 650,000 villages, that are inhabited by about 850 million consumers who comprise about 70% of the country’s population and contribute around half of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Consumption patterns in these rural areas are gradually changing to increasingly resemble the consumption patterns of urban areas. However, the biggest challenge for these rural consumers is availability of quality products and services at the right price.
RubanBridge, a rural last mile services company, saw the opportunity to develop and design a model that connects these rural consumers with other rural and urban suppliers through an assisted-commerce platform. The model doesn’t work like any other e-commerce players as the products and services are curated and brought on the platform, based on demands of the rural consumers through a network of local entrepreneurs. The model also connects hyper-local suppliers with rural consumers and hence the rural businesses get an opportunity to flourish beyond geographical boundaries. For example, a cottage industry or a MSME in a rural location can sell through the model to other rural markets directly. The rural consumers on the other hand get access to quality products and service at a right price at their doorsteps itself, which leads to savings on expenses that a rural consumer incurred in accessing these services.
It is estimated that India has to absorb 115mn youths in the next 10 years as per a recent McKinsey report. The organized sector which can provide careers (not just livelihoods) to these youths can never absorb all of them. Therefore the need of the hour is to create an army of youth who can be job creators and that too mainly in the rural India. This is exactly what RubanBridge is trying to do in the rural India by connecting the aspirations of the rural population with urban India through local youth as entrepreneurs.
With the equity investment from C4D Partners, RubanBridge is creating more employment opportunities by recruiting micro entreprenerus at the village level. Over the next five years these micro entrepreneurs could see a growth of 250% in their income levels due to higher transaction volume.
