Back an Ethical Business Start-Up

If you are looking to
support an exiting new venture there’s a whole collection to choose from. They
can be found at the BiD network. The Business in
Development (BiD) Network is the on-line community for entrepreneurship and
development in developing countries.
 
One Entrepreneur looking for funding is Bart
Weetjens who runs HeroRATS – trained African giant
pouched rats that act as a biosensor to detect landmines in suspected areas.
HeroRATS are plenty available, cheap, easy to train and maintain, and to
transport in big numbers. They are too light to set of landmines.

HeroRATS are a sustainable technology that can speed up demining operations in Africa. HeroRATS reduce poverty by opening landmine affected post-conflict
areas, roads and infrastructure, creating necessary conditions for social and
economic development. HeroRATS’ actions recover land and opportunities for
displaced people and communities to return to their habitats, to cultivate
their land, and to enter into economic activities with other communities.

As a business HeroRATS generate profit by providing a service to humanitarian
demining organizations, reducing the overall operational costs of demining
operations, and thus making the actions more efficient.

The technology has been tested and validated on minefields in  Mozambique. Currently there are 18 accredited teams active in
the field. What APOPO needs most now is to scale up, without loss of quality of
the work. This involves good marketing of HeroRATS and establishment of more
partnerships with humanitarian demining NGO’s.

The business and financial plans are all available for potential investors to
inspect and the investment packages on offer are Euro 100,000 – 500,000.

HeroRATS is just one of many such opportunities for investors that want to make
a difference to the lives of many and BiD is a great place to start looking for
such opportunities.

For more details see the BID website

Article Contributed by Ethical Design Lab