Telangana-based rural tech Startup Hesa is empowering more than 11 Lakh households in the villages of Telangana, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. When the country was hit by the global pandemic impacting millions of lives, especially in rural areas with no resources, Hesa enabled people with a sustainable livelihood through employment, income generation, accessibility, and connectivity. The startup also further aims at uplifting 15 Lakh households by 2021.
Established in 2020, Hesa has been helping a total of 2600 farmers sail through the covid-19 crisis, assisting them to store crops resulting in the prevention of distress sale and pests by directly procuring harvest produce from them. Enabling rural consumers with digital and financial inclusivity, making utility bill payments, insurance covers, withdrawals, and deposits, the company has helped 4000 dairy farmers receive payments within 48 hours through digital disbursements.
Hesa is a unified social, digital and physical (phygital) commerce platform enabling digital transactions of products and services. In the global pandemic, Hesa extended support to the rural parts of the country, providing employment, connectivity and accessibility to all resources. Hesa onboarded 10,000+ people as Hesaathis; micro-level rural entrepreneurs and helped them settle with dignified work in local villages making Rs.8000 to 12000 income monthly.
Vamsi Udayagiri, Co-Founder and CEO Hesa quotes “Identifying the pain points of rural communities, we at Hesa have been successfully extending our support to rural people with technology innovations and solutions. Connecting the urban and rural gap of resources and convenience, our strong network of Hesaathis is able to lead the path for a progressive livelihood”.
During the 1st wave of Covid-19, Hesa collaborated with multiple social businesses like Healthier Hearts, Vaya Trusts and others to distribute 25000 grocery kits in areas of Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana. Even during the second wave, when the country faced acute shortage of oxygen cylinders, Hesa established 2 oxygen concentrators in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district. Hesa was able to provide over 4000 policies in line with the Central and State governments’ schemes of providing Covid insurance, resulting in 100+ successful claims worth 3-4 lakhs to save lives in the rural community.
Covid 19 is a catalyst to India’s digital payment market which is expected to grow to INR 7092 Trillion by 2025 – RedSeer Consulting. Only 20.26% of the rural Indian population have access to the internet, reflecting the opportunity to onboard 80% of rural users on the digital pathway. Navigating through the impact of Covid-19 in deep interior villages, breaking the myths around vaccine hesitancy Hesa is conducting several campaigns with assisted vaccine registration through its digital platform where so far, 3000+ people have already been registered with the help of the Hesaathis.
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Hesa envisions providing digital literacy to farmers and rural communities, empowering them with an escalating lifestyle. Recognising business and impact together, Hesa has laid the foundation of social enterprise in rural India as a one-stop solution. Hesa is a diversified platform for brands and entrepreneurs connecting and enabling convenience for both ends with multiple solutions. With verticals like infrastructure, healthcare, livelihood, farming, and more Hesa, in the next five years is working towards having a pan-India presence and phygitally connecting 1.5 Lac Indian villages and enabling an equitable life and lifestyle to rural families.
