SAAF Cities: Shaping Waste-Free Communities — Entrepreneurship

SAAF Cities is a waste-management program run by Villgro, an Indian incubator for social enterprises. It sets out to close the structural gap in how Indian cities handle waste, by putting urban local bodies and corporate buyers in touch with early-stage startups that already have working solutions.

The first edition, SAAF Cities: Shaping Waste-Free Communities, has run since 2025 and covers wet waste, dry waste, construction and debris waste, and textile waste. Selected enterprises draw on a funding pool of INR 2.4 crore and get introductions to city bodies and corporates.

A second edition, SAAF Cities 2.0, runs with HDFC Bank Parivartan over 12 months and moves the themes to digitisation of waste, waste-to-value and waste-to-energy, wastewater management, and lake restoration. Both editions currently show applications as closed.

Benefits & funding

A grant drawn from a funding pool of INR 2.4 crore, shared across the selected enterprises.
Introductions to urban local bodies (ULBs) and corporate partners that can adopt or buy the solution.
In the 2.0 edition: technical assistance and specialist mentorship across a 12-month engagement.
In the 2.0 edition: deployment support to test, validate and scale the solution in live city operations.

Eligibility

Open to social entrepreneurs and early-stage enterprises working on urban waste in India; no nationality, age or degree requirement is published.
The 2.0 edition asks for a deployment-ready startup with a proven pilot or early commercial traction.
The enterprise must be ready to work directly with urban local bodies, so the solution has to be operable in Indian cities.
The solution must sit inside one of the focus areas published for the edition that is open.
Villgro publishes no experience or academic criteria for this program.

Can you apply?

Open to all applicants

No nationality, residency, education, or experience limits are listed.

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Application process

1
Check the program page for the edition that is accepting applications; both listed editions currently show applications as closed.
2
Register on Villgro’s incubation application form, the shared entry point for its programs.
3
Answer the screening questions: country of operation, non-profit or for-profit, sector (water and waste), and the beneficiary group you serve.
4
Submit your enterprise details, including the pilot or commercial traction behind the solution.
5
Villgro reviews applications and selects the cohort, which then shares the grant pool.

Program timeline

The first edition, SAAF Cities: Shaping Waste-Free Communities, starts.
2025
SAAF Cities 2.0 runs with HDFC Bank Parivartan as a 12-month engagement.
2025 onward
Current
applications closed on both editions; Villgro publishes no date for the next call.