Akanksha Hazari is a social entrepreneur and businesswoman committed to empowering underserved communities across India.
In 2011, she led the team that won the Hult Global Case Challenge, where former President Bill Clinton recognised her innovative approach to scaling access to clean water in impoverished areas. This effort gave rise to m.Panni, is a business that launched in a Mumbai-adjacent community.
In 2016, Akanksha was honoured with the Vital Voices Global Leadership Award for Economic Empowerment.
About m.Panni
m.Panni is a Mumbai-based social enterprise that designs and implements mobile-based loyalty programs for underserved communities.
These programs connect community members’ spending to valuable loyalty points that can be collected, shared, and redeemed for life-changing development rewards in key areas such as education, healthcare, safe water, energy, and more. The aim is to help improve their quality of life and drive community transformation.
Launched in Mumbai at the beginning of this year, m.Panni is already seeing promising results. The company plans to expand its operations in the Mumbai market this year and launch additional pilots early next year.
The Loyalty Program Model
m.Panni’s loyalty program model helps big businesses like telecoms and FMCGs think about solving core business challenges such as churn, customer acquisition, and brand storytelling by focusing on social impact through our loyalty program model.
What that means is that big companies no longer have to think about social impact as just part of their CSR or philanthropy efforts. Instead, m.Panni integrates business and impact in such a way that companies see making a difference in India and globally as a central part of their business strategy.
m.Panni is the winner of the Hult Prize 2009-11 and was founded as a social enterprise in mid-2023. Though still a young startup, we are passionate about our work and optimistic about the exciting journey ahead.
Challenges Faced
m.Panni has seen significant success, especially in how quickly users adopt and adapt to their service. However, the company faces major technological challenges.
The primary issue lies in the type of phones used by their target users—feature phones, which are limited in functionality. Additionally, these users have minimal interaction with technology, restricting the scope for innovation and design.
Despite these challenges, m.Panni finds the limitations exciting, as they inspire creative and universally applicable solutions.
Future Plans
m.Panni has bold plans for the future. In the next three to five years, the company aims to expand into a national service, reaching underserved communities in both urban centres and rural villages across India.
Additionally, m.Panni plans to launch at least one pilot program in Africa, with commitments already in place from major companies for a pilot on the continent.
The company was also recently approached for a pilot in Egypt, positioning m.Panni on an exciting and promising path.
