Idea of Yemedy (back in 2016)

The Problem We Saw

In 2016, as students at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), we noticed a common struggle around us — students, professors, and campus residents were all finding it difficult to access daily essentials like groceries, over-the-counter medicines, and basic household items conveniently.

The shops were small, scattered, and there was no reliable delivery service in the campus area. Buying something as simple as a notebook or a packet of biscuits meant walking to multiple stores. There was no unified platform that brought these essentials to our doorstep.

We often heard our friends say, “If someone could just deliver this to my hostel, it would save so much time.”
That’s when we realized — this was a real problem waiting to be solved.

How We Started

We — Saurav Shekhar and Nisha Kamal, both student entrepreneurs from IIT BHU — decided to build a solution.
At the time, hyperlocal delivery apps like Grofers and BigBasket were still growing in metro cities. We thought: Why can’t we create something similar, focused just for the BHU campus?

This is how Yemedy was born — a hyperlocal e-commerce platform focused on solving last-mile delivery challenges inside our own university ecosystem.

Launch Day — The Hustle and the Unexpected Crash

We launched Yemedy with a simple online platform. Our entire team was made up of students. We designed the website, built vendor partnerships, and even managed deliveries ourselves on scooters.

On the very first day of our launch, something happened we didn’t expect — our website crashed.
The response from the campus community was overwhelming.
The orders flooded in, the traffic spiked, and our small server couldn’t handle it.

Our professors, the BHU doctors, and even our alumni appreciated how we had identified a very real student problem and tackled it with passion and speed.

People told us, “It’s refreshing to see students trying to solve real campus issues instead of waiting to graduate first.”

Support From the Community

What really pushed us forward was the unexpected support from the BHU ecosystem:

We raised around INR 1 lakh through crowdfunding, with contributions from our professors, doctors, seniors, and alumni who believed in our idea.
We received mentoring and institutional backing from MCIIE (Malaviya Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship), IIT BHU, which helped us refine our approach and provided a sounding board when we hit roadblocks.

This was not just financial support — it was trust, encouragement, and validation that our small idea mattered.

Our Approach

We kept Yemedy simple, affordable, and fast.

We followed an asset-light model. We didn’t hold any inventory. Instead, we partnered directly with 15+ local vendors, shopkeepers, and chemists in Varanasi.
We set up a small, student-run store near the campus called Yemedy Healthcare Store to coordinate our orders and manage deliveries.
As a student-led team, we did everything ourselves: from developing the website to delivering packages, building partnerships, and resolving customer issues on the ground.

We wanted Yemedy to be more than just an app — we wanted it to be a trustworthy, student-first platform.

Global Validation

Excited by our early success, we applied to Y Combinator and were selected for an interview with Kevin Hale, one of YC’s key partners.

Although we didn’t get selected in the final batch, the YC interview was an incredible milestone for us.
It showed that even though we were a small, student-run operation in Varanasi, our idea and execution had potential on a global stage.

What We Achieved

Achieved ~INR 1 Lakh in total sales within the first few months, proving strong product-market fit on campus.
Provided local vendors with a new digital sales channel without any upfront cost, helping small businesses grow.
Gained tremendous word-of-mouth support from the student and faculty community.
Ran a fully hands-on, student-led operation that taught us more than any classroom could.

The Challenges We Couldn’t Overcome

Despite our quick traction, we hit some hard financial realities:

Delivery costs were high, especially for small, low-margin orders.
The student community was very price-sensitive, and we couldn’t increase service fees.
Order volumes were not enough to cover the cost of scaling up.

We realized that the unit economics just didn’t work for long-term sustainability in our setup without external capital or larger scale.

Exiting With Purpose

After nearly a year of operations, we made the difficult but necessary decision to wind down Yemedy.

Instead of shutting it down completely, we handed over our platform and delivery process to Baniya Market, one of our supermarket partners, so that the system we built could continue to serve the campus community.

Key Takeaways

You don’t need big funding to solve real problems. Start with what you have.
Community support can be more valuable than capital, especially when you’re building something for your own people.
Getting the business model right is as important as solving the problem.
Even if a venture closes, the experience, the connections, and the impact live on.

Our team (left) & Founder of Baniya Market (right)