Creating SMILES Building the Nation is a Nepalese social enterprise with a solution that offers a SMS service that provides farmers with relevant agricultural information.

When being selected for the 2015 SE Outreach Accelerator, its founder Sibjan Chaulagain had trouble ensuring sustainability of his enterprise. He discussed this at length with his coaches and mentors and when he got back home he decided to register a separate for-profit company called ICT for Agri Pvt. Ltd. Now his NGO (Creating SMILES) could focus exclusively on its social mission of building computer labs, schools and latrines, while the for-profit company could generate revenue via selling access to the platform.

Since then, Sibjan has gradually increased the revenue through sales of services. The number of end-user farmers grew from 4,000 to 15,000, and NGO clients (which work as distributors) grew from one to seven. Sibjan’s success was also recognised when awarded the Data Driven Farming Prize in 2017.

“You gave me the solid foundation to become an entrepreneur and to keep up my dream. I got to know many terms related to business and that helped me to talk to my clients and partners. The SE Outreach Accelerator is the best place to learn about social entrepreneurship.” – Sibjan Chaulagain, Founder, Creating SMILES Building the Nation