Founded in 2011, Frontier Markets set out to solve last-mile access by enabling rural women to become entrepreneurs. What started with selling solar lamps has now scaled into a fast-growing, tech-enabled social commerce platform, built for rural India, by rural women.

Today, Frontier Markets is building one of India’s largest rural social commerce platforms. It operates across Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh, with a network of over 40,000 digitally enabled women entrepreneurs. Through this network, the company has already delivered products and services worth over $100 million (₹800 crore) to 4.3 million households across 5,000 villages and is scaling rapidly.

The platform connects companies directly to rural demand through a trusted network of women. Sahelis use Frontier Markets’ digital infrastructure, including the Meri Saheli app, to run their businesses, managing sales, accessing training, and enabling services such as credit and insurance.

From clean energy to household goods, agri-inputs to financial services, Frontier Markets has evolved into a multi-category platform driven by real, on-ground demand – positioning itself at the center of rural consumption growth.

Award sponsor

Powering rural demand through women-led commerce networks

Frontier Markets is not just enabling access; it is reshaping how rural markets function.

Its network of sahelis acts as a powerful social commerce engine where trust, relationships, and local insight drive adoption. These women are deeply embedded in their communities, making them the most effective channel to introduce new products, influence decisions, and build demand.

For millions of rural households, this network has become the gateway to essential goods and services – many for the first time. Whether it is access to clean energy, better farming inputs, or financial products, Frontier Markets is bringing solutions directly to the doorstep.

At the same time, the platform is unlocking economic agency for women at scale. Sahelis are earning incomes, building businesses, and influencing household spending – creating a ripple effect across local economies. Many are growing into “super-sahelis,” leading and scaling networks of other entrepreneurs.

The impact is compounding: stronger incomes, better access, and more resilient rural communities, powered by women-led commerce.

Scaling through partnerships, technology, and AI

Frontier Markets’ rapid scale has been fuelled by a strong ecosystem of partnerships spanning governments, NGOs, and over 200 corporate partners.

Its flagship initiative, She Leads Bharat, is designed to take this model nationwide, building a public-private platform to scale women-led rural commerce across India. The ambition is clear: to enable 1 million women entrepreneurs to impact 100 million households across 25,000 villages over the next five years.

The company’s work has received national recognition. On International Women’s Day 2025, founder Ajaita Shah was invited to take over the social media platform of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi – bringing national attention to the power of rural women entrepreneurs.

As part of its next phase of growth, Frontier Markets is strengthening its technology backbone through partnerships with global leaders such as Microsoft, SAP, and Saint-Gobain.

A key focus area is the integration of AI into its platform. In partnership with Microsoft, Frontier Markets is embedding AI capabilities into the Meri Saheli app to support rural women entrepreneurs in real time, enabling them to learn, manage sales, resolve service issues, and grow their businesses in local languages such as Hindi and Telugu.