Lal10 enables rural artisans to easily digitize, manage and sell their handmade products for cross-border wholesale. The name Lal10 comes from the Hindi word ‘lalten’ which means lantern and refers to Lal10’s mission to bring light into the lives of rural artisans. Women on Wings and Lal10 have started collaborating on their joint mission to increase the number of jobs and create livelihood opportunities for women in rural India.
Technology-led solutions
India has over 1.2 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) involved in the manufacturing of apparel, home furnishings, and decor products. Post pandemic layers of middlemen, export houses and traditional channels of sales like exhibitions have been disrupted. Lal10 has created an efficient alternative with innovative technology-led solutions catering to these large and untapped supplies. It is seeing strong organic adoption of technology for quick market access by local manufacturers and the pandemic has only accelerated its requirement.
Co-founder’s story
Maneet Gohil is the co-founder and CEO of Lal10. He started Lal10 with a vision of bringing light into the lives of MSMEs with a fragmented supply chain in creative manufacturing. Hence the name Lantern (Lal10). Maneet’s grandfather had a footwear manufacturing unit. Due to a lack of market access and capital the unit could not sustain itself. Maneet is a second-generation engineer and he went back to his family roots of manufacturing to drive value for such MSMEs. Lal10 is an ecosystem driver for MSMEs and solves the problem of global market access, working capital, raw material sourcing.
Recognized
Maneet has worked for Flipkart and consulting before he started Lal10 which has resulted in many recognitions and a speaker’s podium at TedX. For instance, Maneet was nominated a ’35 under 35′ by Entrepreneur India, which recognizes the 35 most remarkable entrepreneurs of India who have aspired to greatness and are well on the way to achieving their goals. This proofs that the idea behind Lal10, conceptualized by Maneet, is being recognized by highly regarded media. Also, he and his Lal10 co-founders featured in Forbes India’s ’30 under 30′, an annual list of India’s brightest young stars.
Platform for MSMEs
Lal10 is the largest vertical platform for MSMSs for cross-border wholesale in India. It can be called the Shopify, or Alibaba for Indian MSMEs. Today Lal10 has 600 MSMEs being actively impacted. It empowers them with the required skills and knowledge of contemporary designs and helps them manage their inventory and ordering process better, ensuring seamless delivery and transaction efficiency. Lal10 is a category-defining, tech-driven, profitable eCommerce business, that also has a strong impact on rural livelihoods and employment generation.
Image by Amit Verma: Lal10 co-founders, from left to right Maneet Gohil, Sanchit Govil and Albin Jose
