Hesa receives 450K grant from NABARD to upskill rural women in Odisha

Telangana-based rural tech startup Hesa has received a grant of INR 450k from NABARD to upskill 100 rural women promoting Self Help Groups (SHGs) through capacity building in the geographies of Jajpur, Odisha. The two-month-long project aims at empowering women in the community with skill development and income enhancement, creating an overall impact. To ensure women’s empowerment, Hesa will use the grant to increase women’s participation at work with digital and financial awareness.




Established in 2020, Hesa is a socially, digitally, and physically integrated platform empowering livelihood in rural areas, enabling access to quality products and services. Connecting businesses to rural India and enabling scalable solutions for rural households Hesa is a one-stop solution for all rural problems. Using the “One District One Product” (ODOP) model, the partnership will benefit from scale procurement of inputs, availing standard services, and marketing of products.

“We are excited to join NABARD on the rural development mission. The joint initiative will empower Self Help Groups (SHGs) women with entrepreneurial opportunities and further boost institutionalised credit support leading to prosperity for rural women in Odisha. With market access creation and enhancing end-to-end infrastructure supply chain, we look forward to overall development of the rural community” said Vamsi Udayagiri Co-Founder and CEO Hesa.

With skill training, active women participation from Self Help Groups(SHGs), the partnership between Hesa and NABARD aims to address the grassroots challenges of the lack of resources, access to modern technology, and inadequate quality in the food processing industry. Creating micro-entrepreneurship opportunities with increased women engagement will help improve end-to-end agriculture infrastructure and organize the food processing industry. The project will provide opportunities for credit facilitation, easy loan access, and financial independence to women, leading to economic empowerment and self-reliance with income enhancement. Hesa will help strengthen agricultural performance and development in project-specific geographies promoting capacity building.

The partnership envisions empowering rural women with opportunities, independence, and financial empowerment, enabling an equitable life and lifestyle. NABARD and Hesa together intend to support women with investments and upscaling operations organising the food processing sector by overcoming the performance and development challenges. Hesa is a social enterprise enabling convenience with multiple solutions for both ends connecting rural entrepreneurs and brands. Empowering 11Lakh rural households to date, Hesa is on a mission to reach 15 million households, uplifting rural consumers with digital literacy, opportunity, and financial inclusion.