Watertech Startup Challenge: 76 Startups To Get Financial Assistance From Govt

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Friday (September 9) announced that it has selected 76 startups under its ‘India Water Pitch Pilot-Scale Startup Challenge’.

Under the challenge, each of the shortlisted startups will be provided with up to INR 20 Lakh to work in the water sector including areas such as water supply, used water management, water body rejuvenation and ground water management.

“Startups will be provided support of up to INR 20 Lakh each and will work on issues of water supply, management and water body rejuvenation,” Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

The announcement was made at an event which saw senior dignitaries in attendance, including Puri, Minister of State in MoHUA Kaushal Kishore, Secretary Manoj Joshi, among others. 

The challenge was launched under the aegis of the AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) 2.0 Mission in March earlier this year. The startups were shortlisted via a challenge and selected after a rigorous process. Earlier, the ministry had outlined plans to onboard around 100 startups under the initiative, but appears to have settled for 76 startups. 

In a statement released earlier, the ministry had noted that “the initiative aims at empowering startups in the water sector to grow through innovation and design that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate employment opportunities”.

As part of the programme, startups have been roped in to bring innovative ideas to the table and to develop technologies and novel delivery mechanisms to address issues related to water scarcity. 

Launched last year, AMRUT 2.0 seeks to make Indian cities ‘water secure’ and has been envisaged to address growing scarcity of water in many parts of the country. 

A NITI Aayog report previously warned that the country is undergoing the worst water crisis in its history and nearly 600 Mn people are facing extreme to high water stress.

The watertech space has been seeing a lot of interest from investors in the recent past. In August, Bengaluru-based watertech startup Uravu Labs raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Anicut Capital, Rocketship.vc and Speciale Invest. 

In July, another water purifier startup DrinkPrime raised INR 60 Cr in a mix of debt and equity from Omidyar Network India, Sequoia Surge and 9Unicorns.

According to a report, the global water and wastewater technologies market hovered around $64.4 Bn in 2018, and was expected to surge to $83 Bn by 2023.