The Water Lab is run by Villgro, an Indian incubator for early-stage social enterprises, in partnership with Accenture in India. It takes five startups working on water problems and connects them to the organisations that can host a real deployment: local government bodies, residential communities and industry partners.
The lab covers five problem areas: wastewater management, cutting non-revenue water, reliable water supply, better water distribution systems, and groundwater recharge. Selected ventures get deployment funding, mentoring on how to work with government and market partners, and further rewards tied to how the pilot performs.
Villgro lists the lab as running from 2025 onwards. The program page marks applications as closed, while the programs hub still badges the lab as open, so the status is worth checking on the program page itself before applying.
Benefits & funding
- Funding of INR 25 lakh to deploy the solution.
- Mentoring on how to collaborate with government bodies and market partners.
- Performance-based rewards for pilots that succeed and show high impact.
- A route into pilot sites held by local governments, residential communities and industry partners.
- Villgro does not publish how the INR 25 lakh is split across the five startups.
Eligibility
- The program page carries an eligibility heading with no criteria published under it, so no formal gates are stated for the lab.
- The lab takes five startups, so the applicant is an enterprise rather than an individual.
- The solution has to sit in one of the five stated areas: wastewater management, non-revenue water, water supply reliability, water distribution systems, or groundwater recharge.
- Pilots are hosted by local governments, residential communities and industry partners in India, so the venture needs to be able to deploy there.
- Villgro’s general incubation form asks the applicant to be registered, or to plan to register, as a Private Limited company for a for-profit, or as a Society, Trust or Section 25 company for a non-profit, and asks whether the organisation is India-based.
- No nationality, age, gender or degree requirement is stated.
Can you apply?
Check who can apply
No nationality, residency, education, experience, gender or age limit is listed. The other conditions are under Eligibility.
Circlebreaker is a free database of global fellowships, scholarships and programs — every one decoded like this.
We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.
Application process
- 1Open the program page and check the status, which currently reads as applications closed.
- 2Confirm the venture’s solution fits one of the five stated problem areas.
- 3While the call is open, apply through the link on the program page.
- 4Outside a named call, use Villgro’s incubation application portal, which starts with an account registration.
- 5Complete the incubation form: country, for-profit or non-profit, whether the organisation is India-based, sector (Water And Waste covers this field), sub-sector, the beneficiary group served, and whether the impact is direct or indirect.
- 6Villgro assesses applications, and a selected enterprise signs an incubation agreement with growth milestones.
Program timeline
Villgro lists the lab as running from this year onwards, in partnership with Accenture in India.
2025
Current
The program page marks applications as closed; the programs hub still badges the lab as open.
Not published
Villgro states no application deadline, cohort start date or pilot end date.