Ankit and Atul had no entrepreneurship experience initially but a lot of zest to bring change. This shortcoming was met when they got connected to Atal Incubation Centre - #BIMTECH. The incubator saw potential in their dream and took them in to train them with the management and organizational skills required to run an enterprise. It helped them with various verticals, branding, marketing, networking, order procurement, and operations. In Atul’s words, “#AIC is like mother to Unekao, provided all what is needed water, soil, heat, support system to grow the seed of only idea and helped it germinate and flourish and, now establishing stronger roots of #Uneako”.
Tripathi brothers worked day and night to develop their unique product prototypes. They believe that to lead by an example, they have to develop every product with their own hands and expertise. The product only moves to mass production when they are confident that they understood the product well enough and can train the others to make it. Only successful prototypes are given to suitable #communities to produce, providing these communities with all the required materials to make their products.
Despite running a medium-sized operation today, they still take part in making their products when demand is high to complete the order on time.
Uneako has since expanded their team and have separate departments now that handle the marketing campaigns, material supply, orders etc. The ideation of every product and sales is handled by the co-founders themselves. Uneako’s products are available at various online platforms and they also have their own retailer’s channels.
The desire to serve the community and environment energizes them to bring creative product solutions. Like, during this unprecedented time of #COVID, they came up with idea of #ecofriendly face protectors. After successful prototype, they themselves set up a mass production line in their home. They then got associated with the local government and police forces, supplying them with face protectors on a large scale.
In the early stages of the brand's inception, they faced liquidity problems since Ankit and Atul had limited savings. AIC BIMTECH referred them to #Givfunds, for a capital loan. The easy and fast loans from Givfunds enabled Uneako to have greater purchasing power, in turn giving them the breathing room to make long-term business decisions that maximizes their impact and increases their scale. This became a key stepping stone in their expansion plans. Today, Uneako has tie-ups with large corporations for bulk orders which constitute a large part of their revenue.
Initial support from Givfunds empowered Uneako not only to expand, but also acted as endorsement for grants from larger institutions. Uneako has since received grants from #HDFC bank, under their #StartUp initiative to support 20 social startups. Also, Uneako is the only enterprise from India to have recently gotten a grant from #GlobalChangemakers. Uneako has a firm plan to utilize these funds to create higher levels of impact for communities and society at large.
Ankit tells us, their venture is a culmination of "Zidd, Junoon aur Hausla", which means #stubbornness, #passion, and #motivation. The stubbornness to follow their decision against all challenges, the passion that keeps them working all night, and the motivation that makes them do better for the world.