PRMX-4

Term-IV

Social Entrepreneurship

Assignment 1: Social Enterprise and Entrepreneur

DesiCrew Solutions and Saloni Malhotra

Submitted to:
Prof. Shambu Prasad Chebrolu

Submitted by: Group 1

Madhumita Chatterjee (X04014)
Pallavi Mane (X04022)
DesiCrew Solutions Pvt. Ltd:

DesiCrew is a socially motivated Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company that connects
global/urban clients with low-cost back-office centres in rural India. It was started in 2005 by
Saloni Malhotra and was incubated and headquartered out of IIT-Madras Research Park. It was
registered as a private limited company in 2007.

Over the years, it has mobilized funding of approximately $1.2 Million from various venture
capital funds. Founder-Director Saloni Malhotra served as the CEO of DesiCrew from February
2007 to October 2011. Since then, Mr Manivannan J.K. is the CEO of the company. The journey
since 2007 has not altered the DNA of the company. 

DesiCrew’s business model integrates technology and social impact while creating value for its
clients. It has contributed to addressing issues related to rural employment, women
empowerment, and infrastructure. Today, it has grown to a 1000-people-strong entity offering
AI and ML solutions and working on cutting-edge technology platforms. Women account for
65% of its team size. Additionally, its employees are able to save 90% of their salaries as
opposed to 10% in the city.

Desicrew differs from the urban BPOs by way of reduced costs (as much as 40% lesser), lesser
attrition and free corporate social responsibility. The larger vision of DesiCrew is to expand
economic geographic boundaries by leveraging the local talent pool to provide a competitive
advantage to customers.

DesiCrew’s digital operation centres are located in towns and villages of Tamil Nadu and
Karnataka. These services are offered to automobile, agriculture, retail, MedTech, fintech,
foodtech, and architecture, engineering, and construction sectors. It is also in the process of
establishing its centres in Indonesia, Kenya, and Jordan. With the impact of COVID-19,
DesiCrew has switched to WFH mode with seamless customer delivery. DesiCrew runs an
internal training program (known as D-TOUCH) to keep its resources up-to-date with current
technology and client requirements.

Saloni Malhotra Story:

Saloni Malhotra was an Engineer and at the very early age of 23, she decided to start DesiCrew.
Initially, she failed twice, but instead of giving up, she constantly chased her dream to infuse
money into rural areas. Finally, she succeeded to implement and run the Rural BPO concept
that shaped the lives of many rural people.

She served as the CEO of DesiCrew from February 2007 to October 2011 and as Director from
February 2007 to the present. She now works as a full-time Vice President at Paytm. Apart
from this, she has also been involved in a few other social ventures as listed below:
 ● Co-founder of Reboot-Wellness (founded in 2017)

● Board member of Goonj from 2013 to present

● Board of Governor at IIT Mandi catalyst from 2018 to present.

● She also worked as vice president of Invest India

Insights:

DesiCrew was the first of its kind to start a concept of Rural BPO. The business model was very
new then and initially faced failures as well. It took constant hard work and patience to finally
make a profit for the organization and brought the social impact of rural employment and
women’s upliftment. DesiCrew sustained its business by continuously upgrading the client
services at a competitive rate (being in a rural set-up BPO against the urban BPOs) and
expansion of its business.

The social entrepreneur must therefore possess conviction and zeal for making a positive
social impact, as well as a creative business model and the courage to accept failures.

References:
https://yourstory.com/2009/12/social-entrepreneurship-gets-its-due-at-villgro-
unconvention
https://yourstory.com/2010/04/social-enterprise-speaker-series-at-the-hub-bombay
https://theprint.in/ani-press-releases/desicrew-scales-up-ai-and-ml-service-offerings-for-its-
next-phase-of-growth/707636/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/salonimalhotra/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/desicrew-solutions/