Bamboo House India (BHI), a social enterprise, established in 2008, aims at using bamboo in creating long-term livelihood opportunities for rural and tribal artisans. In conversation with Prashant Lingam, co-founder BHI, Bizxchange learns the prudent steps taken towards its growth and bagging respectable projects

By Sneha Krishnan & Srilagna Saha

Starting out

With diminishing job opportunities due to several socio-economic crises, BHI has come up with a unique solution of delivering secured jobs to the rural masses. “The idea of providing non-migratory business model for rural and tribal artisans wasn’t easy. Besides, digging into the possibilities of using bamboo in making contemporary lifestyle products was no less challenging,” briefs Prashant.

BHI is formed through the joint collaboration of Prashant Lingam, postgraduate in Management, Osmani University and Aruna Kappagantula, a science postgrad from Nagpur University. Much of Prashant’s inspiration in building BHI came from his colleague Aruna, who wished to create something ethnic. “The concept lingered more towards making products based on market taste and preferences, rather than age-old basketry items. Besides, BHI’s mission was to promote bamboo as an eco-friendly substitute to other new-age raw materials like steel, wood, plastic, etc.” he explains.

As the founders’ concept and ideologies matched, the duo started travelling in scattered forest areas across the country. This helped them in designing the business strategy of BHI. Procuring too many people at the beginning wasn’t ideal; mostly because Prashant and Aruna didn’t have enough resources, nor the knowledge base on bamboo. On their return, it was established that bamboo minimises carbon dioxide and generates up to 35% more oxygen than equivalent stand of trees. Further, they figured that with the smart adoption of bamboo, they could help more than 5 million people below poverty line (BPL).

Subsequently, BHI started receiving support from National Mission on Bamboo Applications (NMBA), Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Andhra Pradesh Forest Department (APFD), to name a few.

Funding

As Prashant says, “I was into imports business before venturing into BHI. All the savings from my previous business helped in making the initial investment. The Rs. 1 lakh we started with have grown many folds over the past years and have touched approximately Rs. 15 lakh. We were fortunate to get monetary support from NMBA who funded Rs. 94,000, CII & APTDC Rs. 94,000, IIT-D funded Rs. 40,000 and AP Forest Department. Rs. 50,000.  “Very recently we received Rs. 12.5 lakh under PMEGP scheme under Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTSME) from Bank of Baroda. We tend to avoid Venture Capital (VC) funding as the schemes offered by them are complex and take a lot of time,” explains Prashant.

USP

“The potential of bamboo-based products in Indian market is estimated to be Rs.26, 000 Cr by 2015. Bamboo Furniture market and Bamboo Housing market are estimated to stand at Rs 3,625 Cr and Rs 1,100 Cr respectively. We at BHI are investing to create triple bottom line returns,” opines the owner. The cost-effective and eco-friendly bamboo, gives the ultimate solution for the rural housing sector. “Setting the product price is of utmost importance, especially since we are targeting the BPL,” adds Prashant.

Future plans

On asking about BHI’s future projection in creating a profitable business setting, Prashant explains “We intend to create an exclusive chain of bamboo furniture showrooms and unleash the immense yet substantially unrealised potential of bamboo. In order to expand our business, we plan to start setting up bamboo Rural Housing Structures Production Unit in partnership with IIT-D, CII –APTDC and National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) and Bamboo Furniture Secondary Production Unit in Hyderabad in partnership with NMBA – CII – APTDC. We are also looking at getting trained manpower from tribal areas on a rotational basis, so that we can provide work to all the artisans in a cycle.”