Powering Livelihoods

Benefits & funding

• Seed funding of up to ₹25 lakh (INR 2.5 million) for a selected enterprise, as stated on Villgro’s programme page.
• Up to USD 250,000 of capital support to close the gaps an enterprise hits at commercialisation stage: product improvements, pilot design, manufacturing subsidies, building a service network, marketing, training, and incentives for women’s participation.
• Up to USD 100,000 of technical assistance, delivered through partners, covering business model and financial modelling, hiring and leadership, legal and compliance, gender sensitisation, and end-user financing.
• Up to USD 150,000 of sectoral growth support: market assessments, gender-disaggregated evidence from pilots, documented best practice, policy assessment and sector engagements.
• Go-to-market partnerships with rural distributors and State Rural Livelihood Missions, advocacy with financiers, investors and policymakers, and work to unlock credit so rural buyers can finance the equipment.
• The initiative is a USD 3 million programme. The IKEA Foundation granted EUR 1.23 million to CEEW in December 2023 for its second phase, administered jointly with Villgro.

Eligibility

• The applicant is a company, not an individual. Villgro’s incubation form takes for-profit entities that are registered, or plan to register, as a Private Limited company.
• For-profit entities whose work can lift rural livelihoods in India.
• The enterprise either already uses renewable energy in its solution or is willing to build it in.
• The product is a productive-use technology, meaning equipment rural users buy to earn income rather than a household appliance.
• Women-led enterprises are encouraged and gender-inclusive solutions are preferred. Both are written as preferences, not requirements.
• No nationality, age, gender or degree bar is stated for founders. The gate sits on the enterprise: an India-based for-profit company serving rural users.

Application process

1. 1
   Check the status on Villgro’s programme page. It currently reads applications closed, and no next call is announced.
2. 2
   When a call is open, apply through Villgro’s incubation portal at vitals.villgroapps.org, which needs a registered account and asks for country of operation, whether the enterprise is based in India, for-profit or non-profit registration, sector, and which population it serves.
3. 3
   Send queries to info@poweringlivelihoods.org, the address the initiative publishes for funding, partnership and enterprise-support questions.
4. 4
   Distribution partners apply on a separate track: the initiative invites organisations that can hit ambitious sales targets over a 6 to 12 month period to work as channel partners.
5. 5
   A jury selects enterprises on innovation, business model feasibility, scalability, social impact, human resources and product development stage.
6. 6
   Selected enterprises then run a staged journey from onboarding to graduation, with checkpoints at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months against deployment and revenue targets.

Program timeline

1. First cohort launched.

   August 2020

2. First incubation cycle runs.

   September 2020 to March 2023

3. First cohort graduates. Villgro records 14 enterprises supported, about 11,500 technology deployments and about 19,123 livelihoods enabled, 71% of them women.

   March 2023

4. The IKEA Foundation grants EUR 1.23 million to CEEW for the second phase.

   December 2023

5. Current

   Villgro lists the programme as running (2020 to present) with applications closed. No date is published for the next call.