After selling his first technology company, Gururaj Deshpande donated $20 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a center for technological innovation, which bears his name.

Mr. Deshpande is proud of the work the center fostered, but the effort focused on what he refers to as the two billion people in the world with disposable income. He wanted to do more to help the other five billion.

“Those people are struggling to get through the day,” said Mr. Deshpande, a billionaire who was born in India and has lived in suburban Boston for decades.

His idea was to encourage entrepreneurship in overlooked cities and towns by concentrating on start-ups, with no more than 10 employees, that would be part of the community but also spur the local economy with jobs and services.