HESA GLOBAL- REVOLUTIONIZING RURAL COMMERCE PHYGITALLY

The rural sector occupies around 65% of Indian market, and most of this market lacks state-of-the-art infrastructure, technology, and employment opportunities. With startup culture booming, rural development has been a key objective of several of these growing companies. By introducing technology and providing easy solutions, these new-age startups aim to uplift the rural economy and improve the quality of life in rural areas. With an agenda to bridge the gap between the urban and rural areas,  technology has been used to this advantage and consistent efforts have been made for sustainable and inclusive development of these rural areas.

Vamsi Udayagiri, a Hyderabad-based serial entrepreneur started his journey into the rural supply chain sector in 2012 through Rural Yellow Times, which intended to bridge the gap between rural supply and demand, enabling the Youth, Unemployed, Farmers and Women groups in rural places to set up Franchises of Rural Yellow. By participating in rural promotions, campaigns and events under several partnerships, they emerged as an independent event management venture setting up their own events such as AgriHorti Tech, HealthPlus Asia, Back to Farming & Janatha Expo. With the Pakka Hyderabad event being a game changer for Vamsi, he realised his vision for the company, and in 2019, the idea for HESA was born. Steered by a drive to empower millions of rural livelihoods, Vamsi envisioned to create an Amazon for rural India. 

HESA is a social enterprise which is intending to connect Bharat phygitally and creating a one-stop platform for the last mile customers and brands for the purpose of buying, selling, promoting and delivering, including financial transactions. Their core offering is a physical network of village-level micro entrepreneurs called “Hesaathis” who are spread widely across the villages while being digitally connected via the HESA platform. These hesaathis are people who are acquainted with digital prowess to enable buying and selling for the rural customers, and resolving any issues faced by them. Being a biometric device-integrated technology, the platform supports people who are currently employed, self-employed or unemployed to build and improve their livelihood. Apart from this, the platform also supports shop and kiosk owners, teachers, farmers, truck, auto-rickshaw and tempo drivers. Following the wallet-led model thereby transparent transactions, the company earns on a per-transaction basis which is shared with the hesaathis. Expanding their reach, the company has included dairy farms, microfinance, banking, financial, insurance, FMCGs, money withdrawal, cash transfer, insurance, Agri inputs, buy Agri produce, microloan repayments, and many more among their clients. Having been in business for the past 12 years, predominantly in Telangana and 2 other Telugu-speaking States, it has acquired a clientele of over 450 with gross revenue of about 30 crores.

T-Hub, an innovation intermediary and business incubator, shortlisted HESA for its flagship pre-acceleration program Lab32, and also been certified under the Telangana State Innovation Cell under its Social Impact Bootcamp 2020. Additionally, collaborating with the Government of Telangana initiative- StreeNidhi credit cooperative federation, which hosts over ten lakh women on board, has been empowering rural women groups to repay microfinance loans via the Airtel Payments Bank. Making strides in the agriculture sector, HESA has been constantly striving to build awareness regarding agricultural tools and techniques in collaboration with Husqvarna Group’s farming equipment division, as well as providing access to soil testing services to 50,000 farmers across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in partnership with Krishitantra. With a reach of over 7.5 lakh rural customers in TS and AP as of December 2020, HESA has clocked Rs. 22 crores in revenue with 5000+ Hesaathis, and an average monthly growth of 25%. 

Read more: Hyderabad’s T-Hub launches fifth batch of its flagship program Lab32 with 30 startups

Leveraging technology to assist both businesses and rural communities, HESA aims to be a one-stop aggregator of a wide range of products and services, including financial transactions and payments. With humanitarianism at the heart of the company, collaborating with Pace Wisdom, to alleviate the suffering caused due to the pandemic and lockdown, HESA initiated bundle options for essentials and food products through their My Hesa app, with a fundraiser campaign to help the needy slum dwellers of Hyderabad during this deteriorating Corona crisis. With a vision to lead this space, HESA aims to enable employment and empower the livelihoods of rural communities, as well as increasing the awareness and reach of rural-built products and services. 

Explore the Rural Genie here and find out about the various services offered by them. 

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