Abstract
GoCoop (www.gocoop.com) is India’s first online and mobile-based two-sided platform that connects the highly fragmented rural handloom weavers and artisans, who typically function within cooperatives, to urban markets in India and abroad. GoCoop’s mission is to enable sustainable livelihoods for the rural artisans, thus helping to preserve craft traditions in the country, and at the same time ensure the supply of high-quality, authentic handlooms, and handicrafts to customers. The case highlights the innovation at the bottom of the pyramid by which the poor become producers and how technology can be leveraged to achieve social impact at scale. The case offers many lessons for social ventures including development of supply chain and capabilities of beneficiaries and their absorptive capacities, B2B versus B2C business models related to funding and market maturity and the need for a team approach in building new ventures.
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States and union territories are the units of federal political governance into which the country is divided under the Indian constitution.
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Annual Report, 2015–2016, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, Page 12.
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The saree is a traditional Indian women’s garment comprising a single piece of fabric that is 5–8 meters long that is draped around the waist and around the shoulder. Banarasi, Sambalpuri, Tussar Silk, Pochampally, Chanderi, Maheshwari, Ikkat, and Paithani are some of the more prominent types of sarees.
- 5.
Annual Report, 2015–2016, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, Page 115.
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Annual Report, 2015–2016, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, Page 125.
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- 8.
- 9.
“Social Marketplace” is a term coined by GoCoop. As per GoCoop, the definition of social marketplace is two-pronged: buyers and sellers in the marketplace can interact socially via a listing service, search, e-commerce, and GoCoop Connect. The marketplace’s mission is also socially driven, promoting organizations who may not otherwise have access to fair market prices or technology.
- 10.
Velamuri, S. R., & Sabarinathan, G. (2017). GoCoop—Social Marketplace. Supplemental Background Note. Harvard Business School Publishing.
- 11.
IAN is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, angel network in India. While angel investing has been prevalent in India for a long time, it is only recently that angels have started coming together to form angel networks. IAN was established in 2006 (Sabarinathan 2014).
- 12.
Sabarinathan, G. (2014). Angel Networks in an Emerging Economy—The Case of Indian Angel Networks (Working Paper No. 453). Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Siva Devireddy, founder of GoCoop, for sharing information and insights about the genesis and development of the venture and for allowing us to interview the members of his team. We are also grateful to Nagaraj Prakasam, angel investor, and entrepreneurial mentor, for the information and insights he shared with us.
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Sabarinathan, G., Velamuri, S.R. (2020). GoCoop: Leveraging Technology to Impact the Lives of the Rural Poor. In: Poonamallee, L., Scillitoe, J., Joy, S. (eds) Socio-Tech Innovation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39554-4_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39554-4_12
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