Top 10 Indian Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2023

Who is a social entrepreneur? “You must be the change you wish to see in the world,” Mahatma Gandhi remarked. This means that we must lead by example and make the necessary changes to make the world a more beautiful place. The people we mention below, did just that!

Being an entrepreneur is hard on its own, and if you use your business to help a social cause, it will only make things harder. There are a lot of obstacles in the way for a startup. But the idea of changing lives for the good of everyone is what helps social entrepreneurs in India get through the troubled seas of social entrepreneurship.

Who is Social Entrepreneur?

Individuals, businesses, and entrepreneurs come up with solutions that specifically target certain social challenges and fund their implementation is referred to as social entrepreneurship. Therefore, a person who will seek business prospects that have a beneficial impact on their community, society, or the world are social entrepreneurs.

Famous Social Entrepreneurs in History

Vinoba Bhave, the man credited with starting the Land Gift Movement in India, is one example of the kind of person we’re talking about here. The second one is Florence Nightingale, who established nursing schools and pioneered contemporary nursing procedures. She is known as the “mother of modern nursing.”

The term “social entrepreneur” is new and  has only been popular in recent decades.  Many businesspeople have started social enterprises. They aim to solve social issues or make positive social changes that help the community.

Being a Social Entrepreneur- the new in thing!

The gig economy is helping India’s social enterprises expand. Young business owners and creative startups are changing the business playbook. These young people have big dreams. They pursue their ambition to eliminate the nation’s socioeconomic disparities.

India’s social entrepreneurial scene is booming. Many business owners believe that individuals may offer fresh ideas, resources, and passion to solving difficulties.

Top 10 Indian Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2023

There are some people who decided not to wait for somebody else to bring about the change; they did it themselves. Instead, they came to the conclusion that they would be the change themselves. Although these were people who were just interested in making the country an even better place to live in and wanted nothing in exchange. We have mentioned below a list of social entrepreneur and startups that made a difference to the society and inspired everyone around them too.

AAS Vidyalaya– Vikas and Leena Kakawini

 

The majority of the Indian population still lives in remote areas of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar. Students in these states were unable to obtain a basic education due to a lack of infrastructure and other things. Hence the couple decided to launch their material in Hindi for these state boards.

The founders of AAS Vidyalaya, Vikas Kakwani and Leena Kakwani, made sure that students no longer have to pay thousands of rupees for guides or tutors.  It is India’s first online secondary school for CBSE class 6- 10th, NIOS class 8th & 10th and UP Board Class 10th.

The organization’s major purpose is to provide education to 8.5 million students who are unable to attend school for a variety of reasons. ‘To make every Indian 10th Pass’ is their vision.The syllabus covers an entire affordable school curriculum, including English, Hindi, Math, Science, Social Science, Sanskrit, and Computers. In 2022, they plan to recruit at least 50,000 students, reach two- to three-tier markets in the given year, and open more education cafes. To begin your educational journey with the app, all you need to do is pay Rs 200 per month. Similarly, they will provide you with competent instructors, regular tests, and you will be able to view your report card.

AAS Vidyalaya has been recognized as a Changemaker by Global Action on Poverty (GAP) for 2017.The entrepreneur duo was also seen on Shark Tank India asking for an investment of 1.5 crores for 3% equity. However, the sharks Namita Thapar, Piyush Bansal and Ashneer Grover collectively said yes for the same amount, but for 15% equity. The worth of AAS Vidyalaya is approximately Rs 50 Crores. Additionally, they brought in revenue of 70 lakhs during the fiscal year of 2020-21, and that number has climbed to 150 lakhs so far this year. Download the app here!

Investors: Ashneer Groover, Namita Thapar and Piyush Bansal

Dexterity Global– Sharad Vivek Sagar

Dexterity Global was founded in 2008, and since then it has been encouraging younger generations to reevaluate their educational experiences and reclaim their sense of agency. Nearly 6.5 million children are impacted annually by the association’s projects, which reach even the most inaccessible towns and cities. As a result, the association is cultivating the next generation of leaders for India and the world across a variety of domains. Their programs include-

• DexConnect is a platform for finding opportunities and getting ready for them. It is improving access, aspirations, and achievement in schools and communities.
• DexSchool is India’s first school for teenagers to learn about leadership and business. It trains them to be leaders in India and around the world.
• Dexterity to College is a dedicated career development program and fellowship that is shaping a new generation of leaders who will build India through their college education.
• DexChallenges helps young people in rural places in being found.
• Dexterity Classrooms teach new skills, knowledge, and competencies to the next generation of students, teachers, and parents.
• Dexterity Seva is putting service into modern education, and the Young Professionals Development Program (YPDP) is training leaders with morals for companies and organizations in India and around the world.

 

Their mission is to ensure that the next generation can communicate with people all around the world. Sharad Sagar, the man who started Dexterity Global, was selected by the Rockefeller Foundation as one of the 100 Next Century Innovators. They have been invited, awarded, and listed by organizations and leaders. From President Obama to the Queen of England, as well as the Nobel Peace Center and the Rockefeller Foundation for its work in empowering the next generation of leaders.

Contact: https://www.dexterityglobal.org/contact

Website: https://www.dexterityglobal.org/

Address: Dexterity Global, Boston, Massachusetts 02155, US

Earkart– Rohit Misra

 

The company earKART is supplying first-in-class service and facilities to the consumers in an effort to bridge the gap between a patient’s hearing condition and the services offered. This offering is a first-of-its-kind in the hearing aid online market. It is the only online platform that gives patients and hearing aid dispensers access to all of the many kinds of goods by manufacturers guaranteeing transparency, fairness on price, and quality. Unfortunately, just 0.6 million people in India who require hearing aids actually purchase them.

 

However the goal of the company is to boost the adoption rate to one percent within the next three years, as well as to streamline and simplify the purchasing process by providing easy access and availability of hearing aids of the highest possible quality. After working in the healthcare profession for close to three decades, Rohit Misra came to the conclusion that the field, in its current state, was not truly progressing in any meaningful way. As a result of this, he decided to pursue self-employment when he was 49 years old and launch EarKart in 2021.

The young company claims to have a dealer network of over 800 people and a presence in 181 different places at the moment. The co-founder of BharatPe, Ashneer Grover, participated in an angel round of fundraising for the firm earKART. A dehumidifier, insurance against loss or theft, and a buyback offer of up to 50 percent on hearing aids are some of the additional services that provided. In addition to this, it has brought on dealers as investors, who Rohit claims have agreed to a valuation of Rs. 120 crore for the company.

Investors: Ashneer Groover

Contact: +91 9289097578

Website: https://earkart.in/index.html

Address: earKART Private Limited 2712, Tower A, The Corenthum, Sector-62, Noida, 201301, India

Impact Guru– Piyush and Khushboo Jain

 

 

ImpactGuru was founded with the goal of making healthcare more readily available to everyone and saving more lives. It is a technology-for-good platform that offers complete crowdfunding solutions. This enables individuals, NGOs, and social enterprises to generate funds for medical emergencies, personal needs, creative projects, or any social cause, large or small. In August 2014, the startup was incubated at Harvard Innovation Lab, then in May 2015, it was incubated at PACT in Singapore.

The social entrepreneur duo Piyush (37) and Khushboo (35) shared the same ambition, therefore they quit their jobs. The Jains abandoned high-profile jobs in consulting and fashion to do something more meaningful: to assist individuals who cannot pay healthcare bills. The husband-and-wife team founded ImpactGuru in 2014 to help patients crowdsource funding for hospitalization expenditures. Khushboo joined the organization as the director of strategy, technology, and operations. She is thrilled to be the first woman-led co-founder of an Indian crowdsourcing platform. Did you know? Women make up more than 40% of their staff!

Using ImpactGuru’s narrative builder feature, one can present one’s fundraising cause in an interesting manner in order to attract more donors. It is also the first crowdfunding platform in India to provide users with a smartphone app. The app provides the user with a brief snapshot of their fundraising, allowing them to keep track of the campaign’s progress. You can also receive real-time donation notifications, and add updates. This platform has collected around INR 950 Crore from over 2 lakh donors from 150 countries around the world.

Investors: Rajesh Mane, Shorooq Partners, RB Investments, Apollo Hospitals, and Venture Catalysts.

Contact: +91 1800 1020 380

Website:

Address: 101, Jai Singh Business Center 119, Sahar Rd, Parshiwada, Chakala, Andheri (East) Mumbai, 400099, India

incrEDIBLE– Dinesh Tadepalli

 

Plastic utensils are among the most significant polluters. As a result, engineer and social entrepreneur Dinesh Tadepalli created the edible IncrEdible Eats spoon,the ideal replacement for a plastic spoon. Dinesh became aware of how destructive plastics may be to the environment while on his way to the States for his education. This motivated him to take action on the situation.

After their Shark Tank appearance aired, IncrEdible Eats spoons received a lot of attention. Several food and lifestyle media sources praised the creative innovation, resulting in a significant increase in sales. Also, they are considering include edible sporks, knives, chopsticks, straws, and perhaps bowls in future lineups. This will almost certainly increase the company’s current value of approximately $3 million.

Investors: Big Idea Ventures.

Contact: (323) 842-0332

Website: https://incredibleeats.com/

Address: 11010 Lake Grove Blvd, Suite 100-336 Morrisville, NC 27560

Make A Difference– Jithin Nedumala

 

Make A Difference (MAD) is a non-profit organization led by young people that works to guarantee fair outcomes for children in orphanages and homeless shelters.  Founded in 2006 as a non-profit organization, and it now serves over 3,460 children in 67 shelters across 23 cities in India. All thanks to their highly effective 3,822 volunteer network.

Jithin Nedumala is the social entrepreneur who created MAD at the age of 19. With the goal of enabling disadvantaged children to break free from the cycle of poverty within a single generation. He received an Ashoka fellowship for his work on creating a Community-Powered Social Protection System. Among his other honors are the Ashoka Global Youth Social Entrepreneur Award, the Karmaveer Puraskar, the Cordes Fellowship, and the Youth Actionnet Fellowship.

MAD’s Vision is for all children in India to achieve fair outcomes comparable to the middle class. MAD’s Mission is to ensure that within the next 25 years, all children can achieve equal outcomes by mobilizing the community, empowering the child, enabling the sector, and altering the ecosystem. They are developing new comprehensive, integrated, and long-term developmental approaches. This will allow them to work with children, from early infancy to adulthood, from 10 to 28 years old. Volunteers commit for a year and spend between 2 and 10 hours per week mentoring, teaching, and interacting with children. Volunteers ensure that they receive the necessary support and care during their development.

Contact: [email protected]

Website: https://makeadiff.in/apprenticeship/?userid=9767

Address: Building A, First Floor, Taikal Wadi, Opp Star City Cinema, Matunga (West), Mumbai 400016, Maharashtra, India

 

Menstrupedia– Aditi Gupta

Aditi Gupta is the co-founder of Menstrupedia, a humorous and informative period reference for women. Menstrupedia is a website and blog that aims to break the stigma around menstruation in India. It also publishes physical and digital comic books and holds on-site seminars.
Aditi witnessed several taboos and misconceptions surrounding menstruation in both her home and community. She eventually realized that the taboo was everywhere, no matter where she went or who she spoke to. She decided to alter our perception of menstruation. As her last project at NID, she collaborated with her then-classmate Tuhin to create a Hindi comic book. This would teach females about menstruation. She was even awarded a Ford Foundation scholarship for her efforts.

 

The Menstrupedia Comic: The Friendly Guide To Period For Girls, which debuted in September 2016, has been adopted by more than 75 schools and 25 non-profit organizations around the country. Over 70,000 females in India have now read the comic. It has also been translated into a number of Indian languages as well as Nepali and Spanish. Also, it has been delivered as far away as Nepal, South America, and the Philippines.

Consequently, Menstrupedia also organizes master classes for educators in various Indian languages to ensure that trainers are experienced in teaching young girls about menstruation. This will cover lectures on themes such as starting a business, scaling and fundraising, change making, and designing menstrual health programs. Menstrupedia’s free masterclass films are accessible for free because to obtain trainers is an expensive task for organizations.

Investors: The Morpheus

Contact: +91 9409728294/+91 9726035883

Website: https://www.menstrupedia.com/

Address: 304, Harvy Himalaya Complex, Beside A-1 School, Nr. Subhash Chowk, Gurukul Road, Memnagar, Ahmedabad – 380052,
Gujarat, India

Probano– Aditya Bose

 

ProBano is an online career advising tool for high school students that assists them in making the proper profession choices and developing the skills needed to succeed. They intend to offer students career counselling, mentoring, skill building, and exposure to prospects.

Therefore the company’s goal is also to assist youngsters in exploring various career alternatives, discovering their passion, and pursuing it.
It has so far reached 12,000 students in 142 institutions spread across 11 states. Aditya also had the opportunity to share with the world his mission for Indian children on KBC!

 

 

Contact: [email protected]

Website: https://www.probano.com/

Address: AIC BIMTECH, Second Floor, BIMTECH, Plot No. 5, Knowledge Park 2, Greater Noida, NCR, Uttar Pradesh 201306

Thinkerbell Labs– Sanskriti Dawle and Aman Srivastava

 

 

Thinkerbell Labs, situated in Karnataka, attempts to solve critical social problems with cutting-edge technology. Accordingly, it began as an independent research project at BITS Pilani Goa Campus, with co-founders Sanskriti Dawle and Aman Srivastava, Dilip Ramesh, and Saif Shaikh. Annie, their flagship innovation, is the world’s first Braille literacy device. It teaches visually impaired persons to read, write, and type in Braille independently in any medium of teaching.

Annie enables the learner to self-study braille typing and reading. Parents and QTVIs can monitor the student’s real-time progress, schedule tests, and provide homework using the accompanying app. Local governments can use Annie’s cloud platform to evaluate, analyze, compare, and remediate a group of pupils.

Thinkerbell has grown from an engineering student project to an internationally recognized innovator. It is changing thousands of lives and continuing to bridge the gap for children and people with visual impairments. The company has  raised $819K in funding over 4 rounds. On the other hand, they have been backed by investors such as Anand Mahindra. Anupam Mittal, Namita Thapar, and Peyush Bansal of Shark Tank India chose the company for Rs. 1.05 crore at 3% equity.

Investors: Let’s Venture, Anand Mahindra and Indian Angel Network

Contact: +916366820618/ +916366820610

Website: https://www.thinkerbelllabs.com/annie

Address: 4th Floor, JK Towers, No. 719/A 53-2 46th Cross, Marenahalli Rd, 8th Block, Jayanagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560011

Conclusion

To do business with the intention to improve some aspect of society is the essence of “social entrepreneurship.” But they do not evaluate their achievements based solely on the amount of money they make. Rather, social entrepreneurs consider themselves successful when they have made the world a better place in some way.
India’s best social entrepreneurs are inspired by a personal and dedicated determination to make a difference in people’s lives. Therefore this desire led them to take action. It is encouraging to see India’s younger generation of social entrepreneurs trying to forge their own paths in their own unique ways.