Empowering Young WASH Entrepreneurs and Attracting  Youth to the Sector

We are committed to empowering the next generation of WASH entrepreneurs and professionals.  Through targeted initiatives, we aim to inspire, attract, and support youth who are passionate about making  a difference in the WASH sector.

Discover our main initiatives

We work to both identify and nurture new talents to strengthen the WASH sector and support youth-led WASH start-ups, empowering the next generation of change-makers and entrepreneurs.

SPARK: Engage and inspire the next generation of talents in the WASH sector.

SPARK is our awareness and talent attraction stage. We run University Tours in Ghana and Uganda, with high schools and new countries next. Each session features a 3-hour WASH Business Game where students tackle real challenges, test solutions, and map concrete roles they could play in the sector. Formats are tailored to local context so participants can see their own pathway.

The WASH sector isn’t stuck in the 1970s. It’s tech-enabled, data-driven, climate-relevant, and increasingly digital. SPARK challenges the traditional image of the sector and invites young people to push it forward.
We know WASH is rarely a first-choice field for students. We won’t flip that overnight, but we can move it onto the podium of compelling career options, purposeful, innovative, and full of real opportunities, whether as entrepreneurs or as young professionals.

SEEDS: identify and engage high-potential talents in WASH entrepreneurship.

A black man with a badge around his neck smiles as he points his finger at the camera; he is at an event.

SEED is our ideation and early-venture stage. We help young talents test WASH ideas fast and decide their path in the sector.

We run Hackathons online and in person. A typical 3-day sprint: frame the problem with users and data, design and test solutions, then pitch. Top teams get coaching and micro-grants to prototype.

We also run Open Innovation programmes. A city, utility, or company sets a specific WASH challenge. Mixed teams of students, young professionals, and early entrepreneurs co-create solutions that can move to pilots or procurement.

To turn exploration into experience, SEED includes paid internships and work-based learning with enterprises in our community and sector partners. Young people can get real field exposure and decide whether to launch a venture or grow a career in WASH!

+14

Hackathons implemented

Open Innovation Programmes organized with Municipalities and Water Utilities

Shape: incubate early-stage startups to transition ideas into sustainable business models.

SHAPE is our flagship incubation programme, the Young Water Fellowship. It is the track we started with and it remains at the core of our work, with 15 editions delivered.

Entrepreneurs join a two-week, in-person startup training with local and international incubators. They leave with a pilot-ready business model, then receive tailored coaching and expert matchmaking to land first customers. Teams can apply for up to $5,000 to pilot their projects. The goal is simple: move from a tested concept to paying customers.

incubation programmes implemented

+150

WASH startups incubated

Springboard: help youth-led wash startups consolidate their business model.

Springboard is our post-incubation programme for ventures beyond the first pilot. We prioritise Young Water Fellowship alumni and also welcome external teams. We step in at the moment often called the “valley of death”: there are customers and revenues, but the team is small, processes are fragile, and cash is tight.

We focus on the backbone of the business: financial management and cash flow discipline, communications and brand, sales enablement, and HR and organisation. Support combines hands-on technical assistance from Young Water Solutions and local experts, plus small grants to contract vetted providers. The outcome is steadier revenue, a stronger team, and a clear path to sustainable growth.

Springboard programmes implemented

+17

WASH businesses strengthened in management, marketing, impact measurement

SprinT: accelerate and connect wash startups with investors.

SPRINT is our acceleration stage co-implemented with cewas. Acceleration is not our core. We focus on launching and consolidating early-stage ventures, then partner to take them further. The offer includes an enterprise diagnostic, investor matchmaking preparation, data room setup, extended pitch deck, investor pitches, and financial models built for scale. Each cohort provides at least $10,000 in grant funding per enterprise. We have co-implemented 4+ acceleration programmes. The process strengthens Young Water Solutions’ technical expertise and feeds back into our long-term support to early-stage businesses.

Ecosystem and dealflow: Beyond cohorts, we build an ecosystem because an entrepreneur cannot thrive alone. We host Aquapreneurs summits like Nsupreneurs (Ghana) and Majipreneurs (Uganda), with 5+ editions. These are high-energy spaces where startups, accelerators, NGOs, policy makers and investors meet, test, and pitch. Outcomes are concrete: follow-on grants, loans, and even the creation of the MajiFund came out of these summits.

acceleration programmes co-implemented

Aquapreneurs Summits organized

1 wash fund

in operation, named the MajiFund, designed by our partner Cewas

Open Call for Applications for WASH Entrepreneurs

Apply to our programmes

Bouton principal

How we make things happen

Every talent has a place

Not everyone will found a unicorn. That’s fine. WASH needs engineers, operators, designers, marketers, finance minds, and AI nerds. Attracting these talents to the WASH sector is essential for driving sustainable solutions in water, sanitation, and hygiene. By nurturing and expanding a strong pipeline of WASH entrepreneurs and professionals, we not only foster innovative business development but also strengthen the sector’s overall capacity.

In 2024, we brought this vision to the rural Ahafo region in Ghana, where we engaged with over 45 young people in a low-employment area, inspiring them to consider careers in WASH. As a result, 98% of participants expressed interest in pursuing a future in the sector. Building on this success, in 2025, we expanded our efforts to urban youth, particularly university students, through a University Tour in Uganda. Visiting multiple universities in Kampala, we reached more than 120 students, introducing them to opportunities in WASH entrepreneurship and career pathways.

Catch them young

We build the pipeline early. University Tours and school sessions use our 3-hour WASH Business Game to solve real problems and map career paths.
We show how WASH links to climate and tech so the field becomes a first-tier option.
After each event, participants get clear next steps: hackathons, open-innovation calls, and paid internships.

BUILD AND FUND ALWAYS GO TOGHETHER

Technical assistance without funding is frustrating. Funding without the right support wastes resources. We pair both at every stage.

SEED: Coaching plus micro-grants to prototype.
SHAPE: Two weeks of in-person training and up to $5,000 to pilot.
SPRINT: Two to three weeks of training and $10,000+ per enterprise.

Stay for the long run

We don’t do one-off bootcamps. We commit. From SPARK to SEED to SHAPE to SPRINGBOARD to SPRINT, we stay with youth-led teams from first sketch to pilot, to first customers, to investment readiness. We prioritise alumni for post-incubation support so they can cross the “valley of death” and build stable, sustainable businesses.

It takes years and a lot of patience to see entrepreneurs move from the dirty waters of ideation to the clearer, still-shaky waters of running a company. We take the risk with them. Not for a one-off event, but for the long term. After almost 10 years, we have watched these journeys. Our hearts are full when incubatees we first met at a hackathon pitch for debt investment at the Majipreneurs Summit.

It takes an ecosystem

It takes an ecosystem to raise an entrepreneur. No one builds a WASH company alone. We bring the whole field into the room. Open Innovation calls invite cities, utilities, and companies to pose real challenges. Mixed teams of students, young professionals, and founders co-create solutions that move to pilots or procurement. Our summits—Majipreneurs in Uganda and Nsupreneurs in Ghana—are high-energy meetups where startups meet investors, regulators, and partners. The results are concrete: follow-on grants, loans, pilot contracts, curated investor meetings, and even the Maji Fund.

We believe and invest in young talents  in the WASH sector before anyone else does. This has been the case for 75%  of our entrepreneurs.

Our impact in numbers,
since 2017

+250

youth-led startups supported  in 38 countries

+670

young people engaged for WASH entrepreneurship

+1.2m

beneficiaries reached in vulnerable communities through our early-stage startups

Discover the Success Stories of Our Entrepreneurs

Brixsan, Peru

Supported since 2022 from ideation to acceleration

Brixsan is a Peruvian social enterprise that produces and markets biological cleaning and disinfection products to eliminate odors in bathrooms of informal settlements and rural areas. They also offer technical assistance services for the maintenance of sanitation technologies.

Impact:

Since 2022, Brixsan has been working with NGOs, families, and local governments, reaching a total of 6,000 vulnerable households.

Learn more

Ver o Fruto, Brazil

Supported since 2022 from ideation to post-incubation

Ver o Fruto is a Brazilian start-up focused on circular bioeconomy. They use residual seeds from the açai fruit as a filtration medium to treat river water, making it safe for consumption by remote communities in the Amazon.

Impact:

Since 2022, their installed filtration systems have provided 383 people with access to clean drinking water.

Learn more

Our Resources

Theme

Type of resource

A team of people, thumbs up, in front of pipes.

Empowering Rural WASH Entrepreneurship

Driven by YWS, the “Entreprendre la Ruralité” programme brought together a collective of committed financiers to boost WASH entrepreneurship in rural areas. Tested in 13 districts in Ghana, this programme enabled 8 entrepreneurs to develop and discover key lessons learned.

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