Our story

How cewas started

A world before cewas

Back in 2010, everybody started talking about the potential of water entrepreneurship. But nobody was actively doing something about it yet.

Coming to a decision

So we decided to create cewas, the world's first dedicated water and sanitation entrepreneurship programme for impact-oriented solutions.

The first start-up programme in Switzerland

In 2011, we incubated our first batch of entrepreneurs in the beautiful city of Willisau in the heart of Switzerland. The one-year programme turned out to be a full success.

Going global

We soon realised that we need to go where the most challenging water and sanitation problems prevail. So we went out and started to conduct our programmes all over the world.

cewas' goal

Today, cewas guides and supports entrepreneurs all along their entrepreneurial journey from ideation, incubation, acceleration to scal-up. Since 2011, we have worked with over 160 partners in 40 countries across the globe. With the support of these partners, we have trained over 1500 people in water entrepreneurship and supported more than 300 entrepreneurs. But most importantly, those innovators have created solutions and services benefiting more than 3 million people.