Max Foundation wins Finture Solutions challenge with piped water supply scheme
Max Foundation is one of the five winners of the Finture Solutions, a competition for startups organised by Dutch development bank FMO and startup accelerator firm Rockstar.
On 26 June, the final pitch day, director Joke le Poole had the opportunity to give a three-minute pitch on Max Water Social Business, a scheme of piped-water in rural Bangladesh that involves entrepreneurs.
The Max Water Social Business scheme turned out to be one of the five winners. The other four winners were Liquidseal Fruits (an ultrathin packaging for cut flowers and tropical fruits ), EagleSensing (aerial data collection and analysis service), AMMP Technologies (an asset monitoring platform), and SolarCreed (solar and LED lighting technology for poultry).
All winners were awarded 125,000 euro each, to further develop their product offering and scale-up their operations in emerging markets.
Involving entrepreneurs
The main objective of the Max Foundation is to reduce child mortality and the main success factors are good nutrition and the supply of clean water. Therefore the foundation started the construction of several small-scale water pipe schemes in Bangladesh to enable entrepreneurs to supply water services.
The key element for Max Foundation is the training of entrepreneurs in selling hygiene and sanitation products and services.
These entrepreneurs generate an income from the supply of clean water and are thus able to maintain a pipe system for large groups of households (up to 250) or small groups (up to 30 households).
Self-sustaining
Max Foundation has managed to set up sanitation services in several Bangladesh communities. It managed to mobilise local leverage for every euro it spent on improved sanitation, local communities and governments invested almost six.
Each water grid service is projected to have a positive cash flow by year nine and a fully self-sustaining and profitable model within 15 years.
About Finture Solutions
The challenge was open to support Dutch startups that bring a positive change in the emerging markets across the world, be it with innovative farming solutions, energy products, or water management know-how.
Finture Solutions is a collaborative effort by the NL Business activities of FMO and Rockstart, one of Europe's first startup accelerators. The initiative is partly made possible by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
In addition to the development capital, the winners will receive support from FMO experts to grow their business.
