ALTIS: A Microfinance Startup in Rural Nepal
This article profiles a for-profit social enterprise focusing on microfinance in Nepal.
ALTIS is being launched by Sanjay Karki, who has been deputy director of the Nepal office of Mercy Corps. He plans to start ALTIS as a nonprofit enterprise with donor support and transform it to a for-profit social business model when it becomes sustainable. ALTIS will focus on agricultural microfinance and technical services for the rural poor and will be formed with the assistance of Mercy Corps. The paper states that:
- Starting a social enterprise in a developing nation with a geographically rugged terrain, that is just recovering from war seemed almost impossible;
- Challenges included questions of market size, target population, choices of products and service, obtaining funding and managing competition;
- Apart from the normal challenges of setting up an MFI, Sanjay faced the near total collapse of the national financial system;
- ALTIS will be the only agricultural lending institution in Nepal to offer embedded technical services and target high-value crops.
Finally, ALTIS’s nonprofit structure will allow it to target communities with the greatest need rather than the greatest market potential, reinvest profits into expansion, seek funding from sources not available to for-profit companies, and creatively employ government and nonprofit partnerships.
