Young Entrepreneurs Start Business For Acid Attack Survivors In India

CEOs Kormákur Arthúrsson says that he and Sigurbjörn B. Eðvarðsson they established the company KrummiSpice to ameliorate the situation of women who have suffered acid attacks in India.

Interviewed by RÚV, Kormákur said that perhaps the topic could be seen as somewhat random, but that he and his partners had stumbled upon the issue, and felt outrage over how authorities in India react to such attacks.

“The mood in India is that when a woman suffers such an attack, a hideous crime, she gets asked: what did you do to deserve this? Eighty percent of those who suffer such attacks are women.”

Kormákur said that the women often end up on the streets, and that financial independence would help them enormously. “So we thought, well, if Indian companies won’t support these women, why don’t we bring an Icelandic company to India and try to do something.”

Asked about the implementation of the idea, Kormákur replied: “We currently import fair trade spices from India to the Nordic countries. The women would then handle packaging and, eventually, in the future, the whole operation in India.” Kormákur conceded that the project is ambitious and has already taken a long time.

The idea to use a business model not only to create profit, but also contribute to society, is gaining momentum, said Kormákur. “By taking a business model and altering it a little bit, we create social wealth that otherwise would not have existed.” As an example of other ongoing projects of that kind, Kormákur mentioned micro-loans to deprived people.

“This is a sort of doing well by doing good ideal,” the CEO said, adding: “The beauty of using a business model to create social profit is that, unlike charities, you don’t need endless input of money. A business model is made to create profit, help the company grow, which may then do more people good in the future.”