Maya’s investment story: Why this impact enterprise was set up for success

Last month, TRANSFORM enterprise Maya received $2.2 million in funding for regional expansion of their Bangladesh-based accessible healthcare platform. Their success story represents the perfect example of how TRANSFORM’s unique approach, and the power of market-based, local innovation can drive long-term positive impact. 

Why Maya? Our theory on what makes a successful impact entrepreneur  

Maya is the sort of enterprise that we love at TRANSFORM – they validate our belief in impact entrepreneurship. And this is because they are composed of two core ingredients: they are digital-first, and people-focused.

Maya’s business centres on subscriptions to their mobile-based health service, focusing primarily on women in underserved communities where many struggle to access professional, quality healthcare and advice. With technology as the bedrock of the business, Maya can be flexible and dynamic, as was evident in their rapid pivot to scale their offering to cope with COVID-19-driven increase in demand. 

Crucially, Maya treats the users of the platform as customers, providing essential, affordable services that also generate revenue for the business. Their services are designed around the needs of the people that use their platform, which generates desire and stickiness in a way that a more prescribed public health intervention doesn’t.  

How the power of partnerships enabled Maya to survive and thrive in 2020 

Central to Maya’s ability to scale the business was their access to the blended capabilities and creativity offered by our private sector partners, Unilever and EY.

Unilever’s expertise in marketing meant that TRANSFORM could offer Maya strategic advice on how to innovate and scale to reach new audiences, as well as input on the recruitment of key skills – operating with flexibility to allow pivots on their original plan.

Maya also leveraged TRANSFORM and Unilever’s reputation to boost their credibility when approaching organisations including Primark and Marks & Spencer. This meant they were able to lock in partnerships faster – and enabled Maya to provide free digital healthcare to predominantly female garment workers, who fall under the lowest income group in Bangladesh.

Follow on support provided by EY will see them refine the scale pathway for their business models in the coming months, enabling future growth.

What we can learn from Maya’s story 

Maya’s journey showcases potential of local, market-driven, impact entrepreneurship. It exemplifies power of digital to drive scale, agility and dynamism; complemented with a human-centred approach of building products and services around the genuine, aspirational desires of consumers rather than beneficiaries. Maya also validates TRANSFORM’s conviction that a flexible and pragmatic approach to grant funding and in-kind support of start-ups produces far more effective, sustainable businesses that maximise positive impact.

To learn more about the practical steps Maya took to survive and thrive last year, you can read our case study here.