East Bali Bamboo Bikes is a community business that was launched after six months of experimentation, seeking partners, and a crowdfunding campaign.
After decades of reforesting areas affected by the eruptions of the Agung Volcano with bamboo, impoverished communities in East Bali (Indonesia) were looking for ways to sustainably harness this abundant natural resource.
On March of 2016, I landed in Indonesia with the mission of helping these communities to find a business model around all the Bamboo they had been planting for more than 7 years
Despite their great handcrafting skills, and all the cheaply available bamboo, the initial market research showed neighbouring markets full of very similar products, sold at very low prices.
Selling products with very low margins was against the goal of the project, which aimed at generating good margins in the profit of their communities, and good wages for the workers.
If we wanted to build a sustainable social business that could benefit the peoples of Desa Ban, we needed to come up with high value-added products with high margins.
Our research and networks took us on a path to prototype bamboo speakers, in collaboration with a successful brand that had been manufacturing and selling them successfully in the Philippines.
As the team needed money for some basic machinery to manufacture those products, we launched a series of fundraising events and a crowdfunding campaign to finance the machines and build a small workshop.
The crowdfunding was a success, and we did not only get the money needed to finance the workshop and equipment, but in the process we also built new strategic partnerships.
The speaker idea was never consolidated, however, an Indonesian Philanthropist who donated a few machines took the entire team to be trained in the process of manufacturing frames for bamboo bicycles.
Months after my departure, and after selling the first 40 bikes, they launched East Bali Bamboo Bikes.
Related articles:
- Opportunities Growing from the Earth
- EBPP PROMOTES BAMBOO CRAFTS PRODUCED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AT GREEN SCHOOL ECO FESTIVAL
- Building their Future with Bamboo
- Reports from the Field BAMBOO WORKSHOP PROGRESS UPDATE
- BAMBOO WORKSHOP NEARING COMPLETION
- BAMBOO WORKSHOP COMPLETE, READY FOR OPERATION
- REPORTS FROM THE FIELD: Update on Bamboo Workshop & Bamboo Bikes Project
- BUILDING EAST BALI BAMBOO BIKES — a layman’s report
- BAMBOO BIKES HELPING REDUCE POVERTY EAST BALI — Local Magazine
Our role in the project:
- Market Research & Innovation
- Bamboo products development and testing
- Campaign & PR management
- Social Business Model Innovation
- Finance