Youth being the driving force of India step towards increasing the investor base would be

establishing a network across colleges thus connecting all the students. A team of student volunteers
from each college (the way SPIC MACAY runs in colleges across pan) would be actively promoting
Rang de in their colleges. Collaborating with student bodies’ of colleges like TISS, IRMA, XIMB- Rural
Management who also are actively involved in social causes can prove to extremely advantageous.
In coordination with this team, Rang De shall organise an introductory session for the new batch
every year. These teams can also help in organising intra-college and inter-college events,
competitions, etc. Partnership with clubs, active in college and organisation, like National Service
Scheme –NSS(active in many colleges) , Unnati (IIT Bombay), INCA(IIM Calcutta), Maitree and TCS
will have some resonance effect. This would act as an affordable channel for spreading Rang De’s
reach and also increasing its investor base.

Rang De’s model should be made more attractive for the investors. For this a revision in interest
rates is necessary to make the model more attractive for investors. Presently, Rang de offers micro
credit at the least expensive rates at 8.5%. However, this causes the lender to gain only 2.5% on the
investment which is less than one would earn by investing in any bank’s savings account. However,
the competitors of Range de charge as high as 15-20 % interest rates on micro credit. For eg: DhanaX
pays a return of 14% to the investors. But keeping in mind the mission of Range De to make micro
credit accessible to every low income household, the interest rates should not be exorbitantly
increased. A revised range of 9.5-11% for borrowers and a return rate of 3.5-5% for the investors can
be considered. Thus Rang De at the same time would be both a borrower and lender friendly
organisation.

Currently in spite of the transparency that it maintains through its website the number of investors
is very less. It can be an indication towards their low confidence in the authenticity of the business
model of the organisation. People in India might be net savvy, but still when it turns to lending
money, they are wary of putting their trust on a website and a Chennai helpline number. By
incorporating Network Marketing in its strategy Rang De can remove such issues. According to this
method, the investor shall be encouraged to refer more lenders to Rang De. The prime investor,
who helps Rang De to gain more investors, can be awarded with some incentives either depending
on the number of new investors that the prime investor brings or depending on the amount of
money that comes through those added investors or both. The incentive could be in terms of higher
return rate or recognition and felicitation during chapter meets, the later can serve as a great
attraction for students.

Rang De needs to actively focus on Social Networking. Although Rang De has accounts on Facebook,
linked in, Orkut but these platforms need to be explored to the fullest by frequent updates,
advertisements, creating communities etc. Separate volunteers, under supervision of Rang de,
should be dedicated for management of these portals. Involving volunteers will serve as a twin
benefit for Rang De. Apart from being cost and time effective, this would ensure personal touch and
volunteer engagement in Rang De activities.

(This model has been successfully tested and adopted by pagalguy.com, the website for MBA
preparation with the maximum number of registered users
http://www.iimb.ernet.in/~gprabhu/pgcase.pdf)
Professionals constitute another important segment of prospective investors for Rang De. Since they
are earning and can afford to invest more, the minimum amount of investment for them should be
increased to Rs 500. However, the minimum amount should remain Rs 100 for students. Apart from
generating more money, this distinctive benchmark would help in satisfying the psychological
demand for professionals to be distinguished from students. Approaching the company’s HR
department is just one of the options that should be explored. Contacting parents of students who
have enrolled with Rang De and subsequently approaching their organisations are other venues.
Apart from just relying on investors to refer Rang De to their friends, a proactive approach is the
need of the hour. Sending personal mails, calling investors to take referrals, mobile marketing and
viral marketing through internet need to be aggressively adopted to expand the investors’ base.
These distinctive benchmarks would even help in satisfying the psychological demand for
professionals to be distinguished from students. Contacting parents of students who have enrolled
with Rang De and subsequently approaching their organisations is another possibility. Apart from
just relying on investors to refer Rang De to their friends, a proactive approach as mentioned above
can go a long way it widening Rang De’s scope.