Context
The poor earn a living doing physically demanding manual work, whether it is on the farm, in the factory, or elsewhere. This workload is especially difficult for women who already carry a heavier share of the work. There are few technologies in developing country contexts to decrease the workload of manual laborers. Increasingly, automation technologies from industrialized countries are starting to be used in developing countries, but they are affordable only to larger businesses. They believe that a new generation of workplace technologies is required to reduce the severity of the physical demands of workers, and to increase their productivity. They also believe that as in the case of technologies for low-income household a new generation of successful workplace technologies and products will gradually lead to the creation of an ecosystem for production, distribution and maintenance of those products. This will expand the employment base and economic opportunities, especially for the urban poor.
Current portfolio
They are still exploring high-potential technologies in this space, and anticipate launching project.
