IBP
Southern Africa
GIZ
South Africa, Namibia and Zambia
Innovative Business Partnerships for SMEs in the Water and Sanitation Sector in Southern Africa
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Clients
Hundreds of entrepreneurs and organisations such as the SDC, Aqua 4 All, Cantone of Lucerne, Swiss Re, GIZ, USAID, IWMI, WHO and many many more.
Beneficiaries
Water and Sanitation Entrepreneurs that want to create a social impact
More than 3 million clients and end-beneficiaries of our entrepreneurs we have supported in the last 10 years
Key Partners
Hundreds of mentors, private sector actors, government entities, NGOs and universities that support us in creating impactful enterprises.
Back in 2010, everybody started talking about the potential of water entrepreneurship. But nobody was actively doing something about it yet. So, we decided to create cewas, the world’s first dedicated water and sanitation entrepreneurship programme for impact-oriented solutions.
In 2011, we incubated our first batch of entrepreneurs in the beautiful city of Willisau in the heart of Switzerland. The one-year programme turned out to be a complete success.
Today, cewas guides and supports entrepreneurs along their entrepreneurial journey from ideation, incubation, acceleration to scale-up. Since 2011, we have worked with over 160 partners in 40 countries across the globe. With the support of these partners, we have trained over 1500 people in water entrepreneurship and supported more than 300 entrepreneurs. But most importantly, those innovators have created solutions and services benefiting more than 3 million people.
Initially, cewas was a seecon project. Over the years, cewas grew into an own organisation and is today even bigger than seecon itself! The services that we provide are:
Explore and discover
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We work together with key stakeholders from the environmental sector, the entrepreneurship sector and the financial sector to create and enhance the global entrepreneurial ecosystem for water, sanitation and waste entrepreneurs. Our focus lies on developing strong ecosystem support services in business development, finance and talent growth.
Co-create and design
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We support the development of an enabling financial ecosystem to build a framework that accommodates water and sanitation entrepreneurs in the start-up, acceleration and scaling phase. To do so, we work with partners and experts in the field to tweak existing financial tools and make them applicable to the needs and requirements of environmental entrepreneurship. In addition, we run a help desk for financing opportunities that share opportunities and helps our innovators identify suitable tools and funds.
Empower
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Supporting water and related entrepreneurs at all stages is the core of our work. We provide entrepreneurship training, technical assistance and networking opportunities to support dedicated entrepreneurs. We have specialised staff that support this at all stages: from ideation to incubation to acceleration to scale-up. We develop business models, support business development, create marketing strategies, create sound governance systems and make entrepreneurs investment-ready. We also provide mentoring and guidance in decision-making processes, client acquisition and the day-to-day struggle to start, grow and scale innovative businesses.
Reach and connect
- Our governance and integrity training and tools have helped companies and organisations around the globe to improve their level of transparency, accountability, and participation and benefit from improved efficiency, lower costs, and improved reputation. Our integrity training is based on the Integrity Management Toolbox, a concept co-developed by cewas and Water Integrity Network (WIN).
Let’s work together!
After a long and winding road, entrepreneurship in water and sanitation is nowadays really taking off! Whether you are a motivated entrepreneur, keen supporter or an investor looking for new opportunities - contact us to assess where you can create an impact!
Contact us