30 innovators have saved over 12 billion litres of water
HCL, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and UpLink, is helping build a global ecosystem for water innovation — one changemaker at a time, says Sundar Mahalingam, the Indian Group’s President of Strategy.
“We focus on strategic support — enabling promising innovators to access global platforms, visibility, investors, policymakers, and peer networks,” he said on 26 June, announcing the fourth challenge of the Aquapreneur Innovation Initiative, the Water Resilience Challenge https://www.bseindia.com/.
“In just three years, 30 innovators supported through this initiative have raised over US$90 million and saved over 12 billion litres of water. Our goal is to empower at least 50 such changemakers — and many more in the years ahead,” he informed.
John Dutton, Head of UpLink, World Economic Forum, added, “UpLink and HCL Group’s Aquapreneur Innovation Initiative recognizes that solving the water crisis demands a dynamic ecosystem to scale effective solutions https://www.nseindia.com/.
“Together with the World Economic Forum’s Food and Water Initiative, we are proud to launch the Water Resilience Challenge, calling on bold early-stage start-ups addressing the most urgent water needs of our time, from rising demands in the tech and agritech sectors to climate-driven infrastructure vulnerabilities.
“By supporting breakthrough innovators and fostering cross-sector collaboration, we’re working together to build the water resilience every industry needs to thrive in a water-stressed world,” Dutton disclosed.
“Being part of the Aquapreneur Innovation Initiative has been transformative. For a company at our stage, the credibility from HCL, UpLink, and the World Economic Forum has opened doors to high-level partners and investors we couldn’t have reached otherwise, including HCL itself,” shared Mansi Jain, Co-founder and CEO of DigitalPaani, a grantee from the previous cohort.
“The financial award and global recognition have positioned us for our next stage of growth, and we’ve joined a powerful community of innovators tackling the world’s biggest water challenges,” said Jain.
The Water Resilience Challenge was also launched on 26 June at the Chief Sustainability Officers (CSO) Meeting at the ongoing London Climate Action Week organized by the World Economic Forum. The announcement was made at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China. Applications are open until 4 August 2025, with winners to be announced in January 2026. The top 10 winners will receive a total financial award of CHF1.75 million divided amongst the innovators.
In response to the growing climate variability, groundwater depletion and water-intensive industrial demands, the Water Resilience Challenge seeks to catalyze a new generation of sustainable, scalable and equitable solutions. Selected participants will gain access to funding, mentorship, global visibility, and a powerful network of experts, investors and partners https://sbi.com.in/ .
The Aquapreneur Innovation Initiative is a 5-year, 15 million CHF collaboration between UpLink, HCL Group and the World Economic Forum’s Food and Water team, to create a first-of-its-kind innovation ecosystem for freshwater. The Innovation Challenge aims to empower global change-makers pioneering groundbreaking technologies, strategies and approaches to conserve, manage and protect water resources.
The Water Resilience Challenge seeks scalable, pioneering solutions that enhance the resilience of water systems facing mounting pressures from climate change, pollution and increasing demand. Submissions are invited across three critical sectors:
Strengthening Infrastructure Resilience – Solutions to strengthen urban and rural water systems including drainage, enhancing their ability to withstand extreme weather (including extreme heat, droughts, floods and stormwater), addressing infrastructure gaps and vulnerabilities, and meeting growing demand.
Rethinking Agri-food Water Use – Solutions to transform agricultural surface water and groundwater use through regenerative and nature-based approaches, improved irrigation practices, and innovations to conserve, reuse, and replenish water resources across food systems.
Optimising Water in the Tech Sector and Energy Systems – Technologies to improve water efficiency and reduce water-related risks in industries such as AI data centres, semiconductor manufacturing, along with solutions that improve water-efficiency in energy generation and recover energy from wastewater.
Founded in 1976 as one of India’s original IT garage start-ups, HCL Group has a presence across varied sectors that include technology, healthcare and talent management solutions and comprises three companies – HCL Infosystems, HCLTech and HCL Healthcare. The enterprise generates annual revenues of over US$13.8 billion with 220,000 employees operating across 60 countries.
UpLink is a World Economic Forum initiative, founded in collaboration with Deloitte and Salesforce, designed to unlock the power of entrepreneurship to tackle the world’s most urgent challenges. UpLink builds ecosystems that enable purpose-driven, early-stage entrepreneurs to scale their businesses for the markets and economies that are essential to a net-zero, nature-positive and equitable future. fiinews.com
