TVARAN: Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs driving Climate Resilience

Last Date for application 20 Nov 2022

Villgro is India’s foremost and one of the world’s largest social enterprise incubators. Established in 2001, Villgro’s mission is to make innovative, impactful businesses succeed in Health, Agribusiness, and Climate Action. Since 2001, Villgro has supported 340 social enterprises that have raised over INR 4.28 billion in investments, created 5646 jobs and impacted over 20.8 million lives. Villgro was awarded the Top Incubator Award by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (GoI) in 2020 and the DivHERsity awards in 2022.

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) enables people to make powerful connections–whether in business, education, philanthropy, or creativity. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make networks possible–providing easy access to information anywhere, at any time. Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University. Since the company’s inception, Cisco engineers have been leaders in the development of Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies. Today, with more than 71,000 employees worldwide, this tradition of innovation continues with industry-leading products and solutions in the company’s core development areas of routing and switching, as well as in advanced technologies such as home networking, IP telephony, optical networking, security, storage area networking, and wireless technology. In addition to its products, Cisco provides a broad range of service offerings, including technical support and advanced services. Cisco sells its products and services, both directly through its own sales force as well as through its channel partners, to large enterprises, commercial businesses, service providers, and consumers.

TVARAN is a market access program by Villgro and an initiative by Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility. The program intends to support the growth and expansion of Women-led social enterprises in Climate Action. Applicants will be invited to share their Go-To-Market plans, basis which 5 women entrepreneurs will be selected for market connects, pilot/trial facilitation, technical assistance and mentorship jointly by Villgro and Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility. The 6-month acceleration phase will begin in February 2023 and will accelerate the market presence of innovations in renewable energy, water & waste management, and climate-smart agriculture, amongst others.

Focus Areas