Britannia’s new initiative helps fund women homepreneurs from Tamil Nadu. All you have to do, is have a biscuit

There are five entrepreneurs with ideas ranging from edtech and farming to optometry

Thirty-eight-year-old Madhu Nachammai lives in Trichy, near a wholesale banana market. When she saw large quantities of unsold bananas being discarded, she wanted to find a way to minimise waste. Madhu started researching on the different ways to use the fruit, and found that bananas are great for the skin. She decided to start a skin care line. Unfortunately, funds were a constraint to start her business. But that changed when she participated and won ₹10 lakhs at Britannia Marie Gold My Startup contest in 2021.

Like Madhu, many other contestants have won this title over the last three years and have seen their entrepreneurial dreams take shape. The contest that started in 2019 is all set for its fourth edition. “We’ve been able to support 30 women. Winners are selected through a panel of judges from different walks of life,” says Amit Doshi, Chief Marketing Officer, Britannia Industries Limited.

To further the cause of these winners, Britannia has now come up with a new initiative focussed on the five winners from Tamil Nadu — Madhu Nachammai, J Kalavathi, Narmatha Vasanthan, Yazhinidevi D, and R Sumathi.

“We noticed that Tamil Nadu has a buzzing ecosystem of women entrepreneurs. Twenty five percent of the participation comes from this State. Imagine what could happen if each pack of Marie Gold biscuit became a source for funding their business,” says Doshi, explaining that each pack will carry the story of one of these five women. The consumer can go through the QR code, read about the person and fund them.

“It is about building a unique initiative to involve our consumers and make this a movement,” says Doshi. Through this, he hopes their businesses are accelerated with the incoming of additional funds from consumers. “It sometimes takes crores of rupees to raise awareness for causes like this,” says Doshi: “What better media than our own packs,” he says adding that Tamil Nadu is a big market for Britannia with nearly “25 lakh packets of Marie Gold being sold here every day.”

Doshi says that over the last three years the response to the contest has been phenomenal. “We’ve had 35 lakh homemakers from across the country participate in the initiative.” The age group is varied, from 20-year-olds to 50-year-olds who have just found the time to pursue their passion after their children have gone to college or started working. The business ideas too have been diverse, including edtech, dairy farming, optometry, among others.

Britannia has also partnered with NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) and Google to provide the winners with skills that will help their businesses do well. These include how to manage finance, digital marketing, how to promote products, getting them connected with each other so they can find a community and foster collaboration. “A lot of times, it’s not just the money but this ecosystem that makes a big difference in keeping them going.” says Doshi.