OneSeed Expeditions - Social Start-up Uses Travel to Fund Women Entrepreneurs in the Developing World
Last updated 9/29/2011 10:38:19 AM
OneSeed Expeditions - Social Start-up Uses Travel to Fund Women Entrepreneurs in the Developing World
Ever wondered what happens when you combine the power of travel with the potential of microfinance? Chris Baker did and he founded Social Start-Up OneSeed Expeditions.
Creating OneSeed Expeditions, Chris, an American public school teacher and graduate of Yale University is combining two long time passions – high altitude trekking and microfinance.
Based on the simple, but powerful idea that travel can have a meaningful impact, OneSeed aims to change the way people think about travel and its impact.
With their pilot program launching in Nepal, OneSeed explores the world and invests in people.
"The model is pretty simple," says OneSeed's founder. "We take an existing revenue stream–in this case adventure travel–and utilize it to extend financial services to entrepreneurs in need of capital. You trek to base camp. A local woman launches or expands her business. OneSeed empowers the individual traveler to have a real impact in the places they explore."
OneSeed will harness the power of travel to provide capital to individual entrepreneurs throughout the world by investing ten percent of revenue in trusted microfinance banks in the communities they serve. First expeditions depart in February 2012.
To find out more take a look at www.oneseedexpeditions.com.