SparkTour - India - mPaani

The bottom of the pyramid (BOP), these millions of people living with less than $2 per day, is a market on its own that is increasingly attracting big corporate companies. The social enterprise m.Paani enables those underprivileged customers to earn loyalty points for their spends on their mobile phones. In exchange for those points, they will earn products or services improving their daily lives : safe-water filtration systems, literacy courses, solar lamps...

Basically, we design and implement mobile-based loyalty programs

that empower underserved communities

by connecting their spends

to life-changing development rewards

in the areas of safe-water, education, healthcare, energy, nutrition and mobility

that can transform their lives.

So basically, to give you an example

they get rewarded loyalty points for certain types of spends

for example, currently we are rewarding them

for spends on their mobile phones.

This market is already spending a lot on their mobile phones

and they are very valuable customer

for telecom companies

but they aren't being rewarded for their value as a customer.

Through our loyalty programs, they now earn points for their spends.

They can collect those points,

they can share those points with their friends, their families

or even their entire communities

and ultimately redeem them for rewards like safe-water filtration systems,

for digital literacy courses, for solar lamps...

On the one hand, we are partnering with big corporations.

On the other hand, we have our users in these communities.

We partner on one side with big corporate companies

who are looking to solve business challenges

in this segment.

So either they are facing a challenge of churn, customer acquisition,

or they just want to

become a bigger player in this segment.

So we help them address business challenges

or business goals

by having social impact.

Our pilot is tapped at a thousand users.

And the pilot is between 9 and 12 months.

So it will go until the end of this year.

The goal is to be a national service in India

and within 3 years launch a pilot in Africa as well.

We are relevant in all emerging markets

where there is high mobile penetration

and competition for the poor customer.

And the reality is that market dynamic

exists everywhere from India to Brazil to Vietnam.

I think it will significantly enhance people's access to basic services

in a way that people have not thought about

that can scale and be sustainable very quickly.

And I think it also moves corporations

to be able to think about having an impact

not just as charity or CSR

but as a fundamental business strategy.

I think corporations

connecting social impact with business

is more evolved in the West

than it is in Asia and particularly in India.

I think in India we still think about

business as a separate activity from charity

and I think more work needs to be done in India

to make businesses realize that we can connect the two.