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With a view to kick-starting the ecosystem for water innovation and technology in India, IIM-Ahmedabad’s technology business incubator — Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) — will launch the country’s first water accelerator in partnership with global organisations.
Partners in the initiative include Asian Development Bank, Rohini Nilekani’s Arghyam Foundation, Luminous Water Technologies’ Livpure, the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program, and other purification solution providers.
Nishesh Mehta and Mudit Narain from CIIE will lead the programme that aims to accelerate, nurture, and invest in early stage start-ups that have the potential to become scalable and competitive enterprises. Selected start-ups will be provided intensive capacity building, mentoring and advisory support by leaders in industry, government, academia and practitioners.
Rajasthan offerThe Rajasthan government is expected to review and award pilots to the top start-ups to field-test their solutions. The programme will run a separate track to support non-profit organisations looking to become financially independent or scale-up rapidly, and help passionate individuals looking to venture in to the water and sanitation sector.
Applications for this accelerator will be received by July 26 from early-stage start-ups working on breakthrough technologies and business models in various areas such as water supply, sanitation, treatment and purification, water management and mobile technology, irrigation and Internet of Things. The programme expects to select about 10 to 12 teams.
Kunal Upadhyay, CEO of CIIE, said the incubator will also assemble leading water-focused funds and companies such as Livpure to consider potential investment in the shortlisted ventures.
“More than 100 million people in India live in places where water is severely polluted. It is critical to find and support promising entrepreneurs to develop and scale breakthrough solutions to help address this issue,” said Xuedu Lu, Advisor from ADB’s Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department.
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