Funding

Grant

Entrepreneurship•India · Hybrid

TVARAN 2.0

Villgro

Application Deadline

Rolling admission

Official Page

TVARAN 2.0 is a 12-month acceleration program run by Villgro, an Indian incubator for early-stage social enterprises, with Cisco as its funding partner. It backs companies whose digital products improve incomes, health outcomes and financial access for women in India. The applicant is the company, not an individual founder.

The call is built around three areas. Climate action covers green livelihoods for women through sustainable agriculture and circular economy work. Healthcare covers early diagnosis and preventive care, and financial inclusion covers digital banking and financial services delivered through women-led agent networks.

The cohort has already been chosen: 7 startups out of more than 150 applicants, six of which Villgro names publicly. Villgro lists the program as running from 2024 and publishes no application window, opening date or deadline for it. The next TVARAN round, TVARAN 3.0, opened in 2026 under a different brief — municipal water and waste solutions in Maharashtra — on its own page.

Benefits & funding

  • Grant funding up to ₹2 crore (INR 20 million); Villgro does not publish whether that figure is per company or across the cohort.
  • Technical work to remove or reduce gender bias in the company’s own technology.
  • Introductions to investors who apply a gender lens.
  • Support to run gender pilots with the product.
  • Market access, plus peer and partner networks for business expansion.
  • Strategic mentoring and technical assistance to scale, across the 12-month program.
  • No stipend, salary, equity terms or travel budget is published for this call.

Eligibility

  • The applicant is an enterprise; a founder applies on behalf of the company.
  • The company is registered as a Private Limited company. That is an Indian legal form, so an India-registered entity is the practical gate.
  • The digital product or service is already in the market, or ready for commercialisation.
  • At least 30% of the company is owned by a woman, or the company was founded by a woman.
  • The company develops climate or health solutions that serve social and/or financial inclusion.
  • At least 30% of the product’s customers are women, or women are its primary beneficiaries.
  • Companies that previously received monetary awards in TVARAN 1.0, the Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge, or the Cisco prize at the Rice Business Plan Competition are ineligible.
  • No nationality, age or degree requirement is stated. The gender condition sits on the company’s ownership or founding, not on the person who submits the application.

Can you apply?

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Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.

  • Residence required

    India

  • Appears to be for women “for women”

    confirm in the requirements

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Application process

  1. 1
    Check the company against the six eligibility lines on the program page, and against the three focus areas.
  2. 2
    Open Villgro’s incubation portal at vitals.villgroapps.org/IncubationForm — the program page’s only application route.
  3. 3
    Register an account and complete the form: country, for-profit or non-profit entity, whether the enterprise is based in India, sector and sub-sector, the beneficiary group served, and whether the impact is direct or indirect.
  4. 4
    Villgro screens applicants through its own diligence process before selecting a cohort. The stages, the decision date and the number of rounds are not published.
  5. 5
    Note that the TVARAN 2.0 cohort has already been selected. That portal is Villgro’s standing incubation route, not an open TVARAN 2.0 call.

Program timeline

  1. TVARAN 1.0 runs with seven women-led climate ventures and concludes.

    2022–2023

  2. Villgro lists TVARAN 2.0 as running, at 12 months per company.

    2024

  3. Selection

    7 startups chosen from over 150 applicants; six are named on the program site.

  4. TVARAN 3.0 opens with a different brief — municipal water and waste in Maharashtra.

    2026

  5. Not published

    application opening and closing dates, selection stages, decision date, program end date.

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