In Hubli, a tier II city in Karnataka, the Deshpande Center for Social Entrepreneurship supports entrepreneurs who use the rigour of a for-profit business model to solve social problems. “We have already incubated four such entrepreneurs in areas ranging from employment for rural women, IT services for rural populations, water harvesting project and designing content management for non-profit companies,” says Nishith Acharya, executive director, Deshpande Foundation. “We really do not yet know which model of social enterprise will take off. Remember, it took microfinance nearly 30 years to scale to the current level.”
As more mainstream players begin to turn their attention to socially impactful investing, the lines dividing various models are set to blur. “All enterprises make a social impact, it creates employment. What greater social impact can there be?” says Bharati Jacob, partner, Seed Advisors Pvt. Ltd, an early-stage venture capital firm that co-invested alongside Aavishkaar in Vaatsalya. Clearly, in the business of doing good, there are no boundaries.
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