Supported by a $5 Million grant from Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund 2.0 by Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) has selected four India-based organizations, INREM Foundation, CEPT Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), Institute for Financial Management and Research (WELL Labs), and Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust (MHT), among 14 others from across the Asia Pacific region, to receive grant support funding for their technology- and AI-driven solutions addressing critical environmental and social challenges – from water quality and urban heat to lake conservation and sustainable rural development.
Remarking on the announcement, Roma Datta Chobey, Interim Country Manager, Google India, said, “Climate change poses growing threats to people and communities across the world, but seeing the wave of innovations rising to this challenge gives us immense cause for hope. We’re deeply inspired by the Indian changemakers stepping up to build climate resilience with solutions powered by technology and AI. As these organizations demonstrate the potential of local solutions to power global transformation, we’re glad resources like the AVPN APAC Sustainability Seed Fund 2.0 supported by Google.org are enabling them along their journey.”
Andrew Ure, Managing Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Southeast Asia at Google, added, “The Asia-Pacific region faces significant vulnerabilities due to climate change. However, amidst this challenge lies tremendous opportunity. Organizations, social investors, and researchers across the region are uniting to develop innovative solutions, leveraging technologies like AI to address this critical issue. We are proud to support social impact organizations like AVPN in the region to foster scalable solutions and accelerate collaborative efforts. Together, we can build a more sustainable and resilient future for the region.”
In its second year, the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund, which was founded by AVPN with support from Google.org and Asian Development Bank as the outreach partner, provides funding to local nonprofits to implement and scale innovative technology-led solutions that tackle pressing climate and sustainability challenges in the Asia Pacific region.
Naina Subberwal Batra, CEO of AVPN, shared, “At AVPN, we recognise capital – financial, human, and intellectual – is crucial for initiating and advancing climate innovations often overlooked by traditional funding mechanisms. Through APAC SSF 2.0, we aim to channel resources into the early stages of the Continuum of Capital to support these grantees. By mobilizing these resources, we can support and unlock the potential of their innovations to help the region adapt and respond to climate impacts. Done right, this not only drives the development of transformative solutions, but ensures their expansion and adoption in the regions that need them the most.”
While INREM Foundation will develop AI-enabled open digital solutions to help communities access data on water contamination, CRDF will use machine learning and satellite imagery to help protect lakes and their important function as carbon sinks. WELL Labs will develop advanced models to offer granular insights into water security challenges at the village level, and MHT will develop an AI-powered model to identify urban heat islands and suggest targeted community-centric solutions like cool roofs and routes.
Sunderragan Krishnan, Executive Director, INREM Foundation: “The AVPN Sustainability Seed Fund 2.0 will help INREM Foundation scale its exponential journey for Climate resilient Water-Safe Communities in India. This will empower 1,250,000 Water Quality Champions across villages of India and build an inter-connected Water Quality Network.”
Meera Mehta & Dinesh Mehta, Center Head, Center for Water and Sanitation, CEPT Research and Development Foundation: “This project aims to use machine learning technology and satellite imagery to simplify the estimation of the carbon sequestration capacity of lakes. It will serve as an advocacy tool to enable local governments to take proactive and corrective actions. In the long term, we envisage the use of this technological solution at a regional and national scale for conservation of lakes and help combat the impacts of climate change.”
Craig Dsouza, Data and Tech Lead, WELL Labs: “WELL Labs is part of a coalition of organizations that is building a digital public good we call CoREStack (Commoning for Resilience and Equity). Grant support from AVPN will allow CoREStack to make a big leap forward. It will unlock multiple foundational datasets and make them easily accessible to key stakeholders through various use cases and multiple mediums – APIs or tools.”
Bijal Brahmbhatt, Director, Gujarat Mahila Seva Housing Trust: “MHT aims at developing an AI enabled poor women-led model for climate resilience for Ahmedabad, Gujarat which will serve as an archetype of a mid-size urban town in India. By leveraging tools such as Google Earth Engine and satellite data alongside community mapping, the GeoAI model will identify Urban Heat Islands and, in collaboration with local stakeholders, particularly women in urban slums, will ensure community-centric strategies to devise actionable solutions.”
Google.org’s support to AVPN’s APAC Sustainability Seed Fund 2.0 follows the $3 million grant it had provided to APAC Sustainability Seed Fund 1.0, which supported Villgro Innovation Foundation and Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust explore new use-cases for innovative technology, including AI, ML and Internet-of-Things (IoT) models, to address threats of high water scarcity and excessive flooding across India.
Villgro Innovation Foundation partnered with CultYvate to deploy an IoT-based solution that has helped farmers in Punjab and Kerala save over 13 million tonnes of water between June 2023 and April 2024, while helping mitigate over 3,700 tonnes of carbon emissions from India’s agriculture sector. Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust developed and tested a machine-learning model to assist flood vulnerability mapping in Amalner in Maharashtra which, along with support from local stakeholders and the community, is helping strengthen urban planning that focuses on protecting natural drainage systems, mitigating the occurrence and severity of floods, and supporting groundwater restoration for the town’s 100,000+ residents.
