14/06/2013
ThinkChange India has been acquired by YourStory.in, setting stage for next phase of growth
Approximately five years ago, the four founders of ThinkChange India huddled up in a coffee shop near New York University (called Think Coffee, which the blog derives its name from) and hatched plans to create an online platform focused on social entrepreneurship in India. Back then, social entrepreneurship and social enterprise was still in its relative nascence in India – not too many people had heard of the term and there was little news and coverage on entrepreneurs.
When we started ThinkChange India, our dream was to play a small role in catalyzing the social entrepreneurship sector in India. We featured hundreds of early-stage entrepreneurs, covered various events and connected people to numerous opportunities. Our success is reflected by the fact that we have received half a million unique page-views at the blog since we started and continue to have thousands of followers. Many of you have personally written to us and shared your gratitude for the work we do.
We also simultaneously got to witness the immense growth of the social entrepreneurship sector in India in the last five years, with thousands of new start-ups, large national conferences, business plan competitions, incubators, support organizations etc.
Today the sector needs a more stable online presence, something better than a bootstrapped operation run by volunteers, fueled simply by our passion. Thus, we are merging ThinkChange India with Social Story, part of YourStory.in. YourStory is a digital powerhouse focused on start-ups and entrepreneurs across sectors and they continue to play a game-changing role in supporting early-stage entrepreneurs both online and offline.
We also believe that the social enterprise sector in India is at the cusp of triggering the next stage of phenomenal growth, and platforms like ThinkChange India and Social Story have a strong role to play. We recently worked with the Social Story team to develop a proposal for the next generation information platform for the impact-investing sector. The proposal won grant support as part of the Impact Economy Innovations Fund (IEIF) launched by The Rockefeller Foundation, Omidyar Network and Dasra.
We are also excited that the YourStory team is dedicated to building the next generation online platform for the sector. In the words of Shradha Sharma, Founder & CEO, YourStory Media:
I have been following ThinkChange India since 2010 and have a huge respect for the work they have done, with this merger I believe the true gainer will be the social enterprise space and social entrepreneurs in India. We are going to put massive efforts in making SocialStory the destination place for social entrepreneurs across India and eventually across geographies.
Moving forward, the ThinkChange India news platform will cease to exist. We will continue to work with the Social Story team in the coming months to help create a stronger online infrastructure for the sector, supporting early stage entrepreneurs.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
