I was recently pointed to GreenMango - an interesting project and winner of the Echoing Green Fellowship. GreenMango is based out of Hyderabad and profiles small time, base-of-the-pyramid owned businesses such as plumbers, carpenters, tailors, mechanics and electricians. The data and service is also currently restricted to Hyderabad. The platform is currently in Beta version - with a simple interface to search for local businesses, using filters for business type, business name, or the area/pin codes.

Unlike Babajob, which depends on a more complicated variant of social networking, GreenMango offers a simple design and user reviews - that help one connect directly with the business. I was not able to write a review for my electrician, but I suspect that similar to popular auction sites, few people may try to game the system. While initiatives such as GreenMango as laudable in concept, even the more socially conscious friends I speak to seemed to prefer to use offline referrals to identify such help.

The question is: Is GreenMango a scalable concept? Does the initiative create value for the individuals in the businesses profiled? (To be fair, not all social initiatives are launched with the goal of achieving scale - and our interest in this analysis is only to better understand models that might scale)

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While attending the SEKN research colloquium a few days ago, I was able to sit down and talk to Harvard Business School Professor Michael Chu. During his tenure at ACCION International, Mr. Chu played a major role in the development of Mexico's Banco Compartamos. He currently co-leads the Ignia Fund, a for-profit BoP private equity fund focused on the Latin American region.

Following is a four-question summary of the notes I took during our hour-long conversation about Ignia and its prospects of transforming the BoP/SME investment landscape in this region of the world.

Francisco Noguera: What is the background of the team behind the idea of Ignia?

Michael Chu: My partner Alvaro Rodriguez holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and his first job out of School was with ACCION International. He then moved on to be CFO of Grupo Vitro (one of the world's largest glass manufacturers), CEO of Farmacia Benavides (Mexico's largest pharmacy chain) and then CFO of Grupo Elektra. He also held a seat at the board of ACCION. For my own part, I worked for the Boston Consulting Group after earning my MBA from Harvard, and then did leveraged buyouts in the private equity industry with KKR before joining ACCION, by the time Bancosol was launched. I also served as President and CEO of ACCION and also started an investment fund in Argentina called Pegasus capital.

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