RMantra founded by Neha Kothari and Neha Goyal: Two young women who not only share their first name but also a strong passion for community welfare.
Their friendship started when they met while pursuing engineering. After Bachelors, Neha Goyal started working as Research Assistant in a Government College in Udaipur while Neha Kothari (Fondly called as Dolly) opted for masters and thereafter joined an NGO despite her technical background. The duo has been involved in informal Education Program for slums through creative thinking and Value Education and volunteered for various NGOs since their college days.
But It was in 2014, when they found a common purpose.They came across two Projects, one was organizing a camp for slums in Udaipur and the other was a camp for kids in summer. Working on these two projects was an eye opener experience for the ladies as the sense of giving back to the community was very fulfilling . This laid the foundation of RMantra and without giving it a second thought, they quit their jobs and decided to shift gears fulltime towards their true passions : Art, Creativity, and Service.
RMantra started off as a part time venture through workshops, classes, and sessions in various societies of Udaipur including women and children. These workshops gave a valuable insight on the huge untapped talent of young girls and women in various crafts and presented them with a platform to showcase their abilities. Humbled by their talent, skills, and resilience, the two Nehas decided to provide a platform for these underprivileged women to earn a respectable living and contributing to their society. All along the journey their families were extremely supportive specially their brothers Dhruv and Nikhil cheered them from the side line.
They decided to take RMantra to another level by bringing together a large group of girls and women to make handmade products and provide them a meaningful employment. Finally, in 2015 RMantra was independently registered as Partnership Firm under Indian Partnership Act, 1932. The name RMantra imbibes their passion for handmade products, and the tagline aptly goes “Refined by Hands, Run by Heart”.
This threw up a new problem. “We had registered our company, but we didn’t know how and from where to start and execute our idea, then my husband Anand, motivated and advised us to use social media platforms” recalls Neha about those days
They designed some envelopes and band for Rakhi and promoted them through social media and it was a big hit. By November, the team had an idea of the market, the customers requirement and had enough range of products with them from handmade bags to envelopes, and paintings.
In November they reached out to some of the largest Ecommerce players in the country like Amazon, Snapdeal etc. to create a larger market targeting the whole of India. To create brand awareness and bring more innovation they hired Trapti as creative head. The time was finally ripe for launching their own portal www.rmantra.in in march of 2016. Today RMantra has grown from a team of 2 to 7 when women and girls from less privileged background are given an opportunity to make a living.
“The primary mission for the RMantra is to support handmade made by women from less privileged backgrounds. Our dream is to involve women be it our grandma, a student or housewife who are looking for opportunity to showcase their talent, their creations and earn a living in doing so. There are so many mass produced items out there that it often feels that the world has lost the respect for the small, handmade items. Our goal is that when you see our product, You feel the passion that has gone into making it” says the proud Dolly.
Since its inception RMantra has grown slowly but steadily and has successfully conducted several exhibitions, catering to different sectors of business, and residential apartments and getting an over whelming response for the products at each place. Recalling there journey so far, Neha concludes with these words “We have now a wide range of handmade products especially our personalized gifts each with a different theme have made us unique as a brand. The positive responses have given us strength to achieve and strive for much better in the future. It’s been an exciting and fulfilling experience so far and the journey has just only begun.”
