Cuffe Parade slum dwellers get seed funding for business ventures

An initiative in Mumbai's Cuffe Parade-Colaba area is mentoring entrepreneurs in slum households and providing seed capital to help them start businesses. The project, called 'Har koi banega businessman, businesswoman', selected 10 participants from seven local slums. The Mendonsa Foundation, an NGO, partnered with the CapSavvy Seed fund for the initiative. The project aims to eventually expand to other parts of the city, state and country.

MUMBAI: In the upscale Cuffe Parade-Colaba area, where the ultra-rich share the neighbourhood with slum dwellers, a great new initiative has been taken by a Cuffe Parade resident along with former local corporators. The Mendonsa Foundation, an NGO, some months ago came up with the idea of mentoring entrepreneurs in every slum household and helping them out with seed capital. The NGO got the CapSavvy Seed fund on board, and the journey kicked off.

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The culmination happened on Saturday at a municipal school in Colaba, where 10 youngsters from the seven Colaba slums of Ambedkar Nagar, Steel Godown, Geeta Nagar, Shivshakti Nagar, Colaba Market, Badhwar Park and Machhimar Nagar were shortlisted. “This is the first time such a project has happened through seed funding,” said former corporator Makarand Narwekar. “We are proud of our participants, who will now get an opportunity to meet the pool of investors and fulfil their business ambitions.”

Those selected in ‘Har koi banega businessman, businesswoman’ included Kevin D’souza from Transit Camp, Dipesh Vaidya and Kunal Shinare from Sudham Jhopdi in Colaba Market, Tejaswi Koli and Mamata from Murthy Nagar and Parshuram and Hasnain from Geeta Nagar. “Two of our tailors who participated have already got orders,” said Narvekar. “One of the girls who is a Koli and an expert in Koli cuisine is now working at our friend’s cloud kitchen.”

Dr Suhani Mendonsa, project director at the Mendonsa Foundation and the moving force behind the venture, elaborated on its trajectory. “In the first month, we focused on spreading awareness,” she said. “The slum dwellers didn’t quite grasp what we were trying to do even after we printed pamphlets in their language and in Hindi. They thought we were giving them loans. Finally, we made them realise what our project was.”

The aspirants were divided into three groups. Group 3 members were passionate about starting a business but had no knowledge about the process and how to draw up a business plan. Group 2 had ideas but didn’t know how to make a business plan either, while Group 1 comprised technically well versed youngsters who could chalk out a business plan but needed support. “We got more than 75 registrations,” said Mendonsa. “After five jury rounds, we shortlisted the top 10.”

Mendonsa said her team got “amazing” entries. “A 19-year-old boy is into gaming and came up with an idea based on this,” she said. “Another boy is into camping sites and the third one is interested in alternative therapies to treat pain. In Colaba Market, there were two boys who came up with a plan on pre-wedding shoots and personalised it with their own songs. The seed fund was interested in their idea.”

The project team got a lot of support from the Narwekar family. Rahul Narwekar, speaker of the Maharashtra legislative assembly and former corporators Makarand Narwekar and Harshita Narwekar took the team to the slums in the evenings.

Kevin D’Souza, a winning participant, said that many economically backward people had business ideas and could raise funds this way. “I am grateful for this opportunity,” he said. Kunal Shinare, another winner, said that the project had given him an aim as well as provided a direction to start his own business.

Mendonsa has big plans for her project. “If an idea is economically viable and sustainable, we will fund it,” she said. “Eventually our aim is to take this to the entire city, state and country.”