This #AChangingWorld episode features Pranav Chopra, a social entrepreneur who founded Nemi Teas. This podcast definitely goes down even better with a cup of tea as he talks about how social investment has played a part in his journey and the potential ways to scale up.
[Social investment] has absolutely played a huge part because moving on from the tea stalls we had a huge demand of our tea blends that we had so we quickly started off from a full range of teas into more cafes and deli's then we switched over our focus into large corporates so in order to scale we needed funding so we initially started off with a small grant from UnLtd.
Challenge
Nemi Teas provide employment to refugees, give them local work experience and job readiness skills to enter the job market and help them integrate into broader society. Create positive change through business, employment opportunities and support refugees to secure a local referee to help them enter the UK workforce.
Revenue Model
Main source of revenue comes from selling tea blends, biodegradable tea bags and supporting the Fairtrade movement by buying tea on Fairtrade terms. They also employ refugees to perform commercial roles including sales and marketing, events, packaging and distribution.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced Nemi Teas to close their shop and scale up their online offer.
Impact
They re-invest more than 50% of its profits back into the business to help achieve social-impact goals and create opportunities for refugees. The Covid-19 pandemic has given them an opportunity to review their impact matrix, revenue model and business strategy.