How Karghewale turns creative wage workers into creative entrepreneurs

Nivedita Rai from Karghewale

Meet Karghewale, a unique incubator that aims to transform creative wage workers in the textile sector – the artisans who weave, spin and embroider – into creative entrepreneurs.

It was at the end of the first wave of Covid-19 that Nivedita Rai and Sourodip Ghosh, development sector professionals, both graduates of the Institute of Rural Management Anand, came up with the idea of ​​setting up Karghewale, which means ‘people of handlooms’.

“It was a time when many weavers and artisans were in need. Moreover, the weavers’ incomes had stagnated at one point. We thought, why not partner with them and build an agency for them,” says Rai.

Thus, the incubator started with the simple idea of ​​being “an ideal B2B agent” between the artisans in the sector and the buyers – these could be fashion houses and textile makers. “We found that there was a white space in the textile sector when it came to sourcing from artisans. In mass textiles, there were plenty of full-stack B2B agents, but when it came to the artisan sector, there was a gap,” explains Rai.

Help from craftsmen

On the supply side, Karghewale helps the artisans by procuring raw materials in an aggregated manner to get better prices, while on the demand side, it aggregates production capacity to better meet the demands of the buyers. The artisans get direct access to the market and also learn to innovate and produce designs that the buyer wants.

To help the artisans grow into creative entrepreneurs, a lot of dexterity and craftsmanship is needed, says Rai. There are six months of capacity building and almost three years of hand-holding. The products are sold through the Karghewale platform, but the artisans are also helped to set up their own Instagram and WhatsApp accounts for businesses and become independent. “We encourage them to design and also sell,” says Rai.

Karghewale works with nearly 800 artisans and has set up around 35 ventures, Rai said. At least 10 to 12 have split off and become fully independent.

Currently, it works with artisans from four states: Bihar, West Bengal, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Having recently received funding from Brij Incubators, it is ready to scale up. The dream is to empower artisans to define and dictate value on their own terms. Thread by thread we move towards the fulfillment of that dream.

Published on January 18, 2026