Fancy buying a Madhubani painting or a Rogan Art stole from award-winning craftsmen? This new platform might help

Yeebo is a marketplace that attempts to digitally connect craftspersons with potential buyers

In the initial stages of the pandemic, one of the things that came to the fore was the need to support indigenous, sustainably produced goods that have a lower carbon footprint, and nurture artisan families as well. With tourism coming to a standstill, there was a need to take handmade products from artisan villages directly to buyers. A few e-commerce giants stepped in to stock products from the handloom and craft sector, but there is always room for more. Yeebo, a month-old marketplace that connects artisans to the buyers directly, is taking a step towards plugging the existing gaps. Founded by Delhi-based Maahin Puri and Ikshitha Puri, the app has on board more than 300 artisans and has been downloaded by more than 3,000 potential buyers. The mobile application interface is built such that artisans can set up their shop on Yeebo following a few steps, even if they are not tech-savvy: “Some of the villages we visited are off Google Maps and we found incredible handmade products there. Many artisans are not comfortable with browsing websites, but they use mobile apps easily. That helped us develop Yeebo,” says Maahin, a Duke University graduate in Economics and Computer Science.