From providing affordable, safe and clean lighting to people living in Rwanda to training Cambodian youth with the skills they need to deliver competitively-priced IT services, social enterprises are making a significant impact in the world's developing countries.
But a Brazil-based organization says more still needs to be done to ensure these types of businesses grow in order to reach millions more people.
Enter Ayllu, a social enterprise itself that aims to fill what it deems the largest gap in the social enterprise sector — access to relevant and timely information.
Since launching in 2007, the organization has interviewed and collected data on 90 social enterprises, while building the world's largest database of social enterprises operating in markets where people live on less than $3 a day.
Melissa Richer, Ayllu’s executive director, says it’s these types of social enterprises — defined as market initiatives on track to profitability — that are struggling to grow due to a lack of resources in developing countries.
She says Ayllu is interested in sharing best practices about social enterprises, as well as provide sector-relevant data and case studies, that will support better decision-making throughout the sector.
“Any industry that is maturing comes to a point where it really needs information in a more cohesive way,” says Richer. “And we are really struggling in our sector right now because there is a high level of inefficiency without that information.”
By aggregating, processing and distributing information to social enterprises, investors and academics, Ayllu’s estimated they can save the sector between $15 and 20 million in time-saving costs alone in the next three years. That’s without providing additional information such as consulting and customized data for its members, which it also offers.
Richer describes their services as similar to Bloomberg.
The organization is building public maps that provide users with information on market solutions from across the globe. The first map, called iuMAP, features 300 social enterprises in 55 countries, and is searchable by name, geography, and area of focus.
Richer says the first map has received visits from 68 countries, highlighting the need for this type of information. Additional data and analysis tools for iuMAP are expected to be released this fall, as well as two topic-specific maps focusing on microenergy and Brazil’s market ecosystem.
According to Richer, the real value add of Ayllu is its ability to collect consistent information from a wide range of social enterprises in order to provide specialized data to the people who need it most. She says a solar company in Brazil will find some its best learnings from abroad, as successful strategies are spread across the globe. Its aim through sharing this type of knowledge is to help social enterprises reach scale.
“The whole point to what we are doing is to facilitate market maturity,” says Richer “It’s all about maturity and reaching millions more people with these business models.”
To learn more about Ayllu, click here.
Related Story:
Ayllu Launches World's Largest Directory of Social Enterprises
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