03 December 2009

United Villages ~ Amir Hasson in Dev't Ventures!

It was very cool to have MIT Sloan alumnus Amir Hasson return to our MIT Development Ventures class where he shared his experiences after co-founding our live-case company, United Villages, which empowers...
"...rural people by providing and delivering products, services, and information. United Villages leverages existing wireless and transportation infrastructures to cost-effectively reach rural markets that are otherwise underserved. United Villages, Inc. is based in Cambridge, MA (USA) and operates a subsidiary in India. United Villages India is headquartered in New Delhi and currently operates networks in rural Rajasthan and Orissa."
The prime business is digitizing via mobile phones the rural supply chain -- getting consumer goods more efficiently from urban hubs into small-scale rural village retailers. This is done via a local entrepreneur who serves as efficient middleman and relying upon the established bus transportation network to carry the goods between hub and middleman. The middleman is responsible for shifting from bus stop to retailers, and the retailers, in turn, sell to end-customers! This is a fantastic and fast-growing business!

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