Incubating invention-based businesses in India and developing countries through mentorship and financial support systems for entrepreneurs addressing the needs of the poor
The Villgro Innovations Foundation is India’s oldest social enterprise incubator. Established in 2001 by Indian social entrepreneur Paul Basil, it inspires, mentors, funds and supports early stage, innovation-based, for-profit enterprises.
Villgro incubates and launches self-sustaining, scalable, invention-based businesses in the energy, health and education sectors that seek to serve the rural Indian poor.
Working with the Menterra Fund, Villgro has built a platform to connect their incubatees to debt and equity investment as they develop and grow. It also promotes an ecosystem for invention in India through recognition, prizes and convenings of key segments of the invention ecosystem, including inventors, students, media, investors and government.
Villgro’s programs include:
iPitch:
The iPitch program focuses on identifying and providing seed money to the most unconventional enterprises in India that are solving pressing societal problems in a profitable and scalable manner.
Unconvention:
The Unconvention conference is the culmination of iPitch, and convenes stakeholders and collaborators in the field of social entrepreneurship to share knowledge, inspire and network with each other for the shared goal of creating business solutions for the poor.
Villgro has incubated nearly 150 social enterprises, which have generated approximately 4,000 jobs, secured $18 million in follow-on funding and touched nearly 20 million underprivileged lives with needed products. It is currently replicating its successful model to support social enterprises in Kenya, Philippines and Vietnam.