WeVois seeks to improve incomes for sanitation workers while improving overall waste collection efficiency

Bangalore, INDIA – June 21, 2023

Upaya Social Ventures (Upaya) today announced an investment in WeVois Labs Private Limited (WeVOIS), a solid waste management company with integrated technology to drive end-to-end, on-ground operations of waste collection services throughout India. Their model is creating stable and predictable income for sanitation workers in this otherwise informal economy, along with reliable data to continue improving waste management.

The investment is the fourth one that Upaya has made in India’s waste management sector, which handles the 62 megatons of waste generated by the country each year.

“WeVOIS is bringing better pay and improved technology to sanitation workers,” said Upaya CEO Kate Cochran. “Continuing to formalize the waste management sector in India will yield massive environmental and climate payoffs, but it can also create reliable, safe jobs at scale in every state in the country.”

Tech entrepreneurs Abhishek Gupta and Abhinav Vashistha founded WeVOIS in 2018 to address inefficiencies in India’s fragmented waste management system, which begin at the door-to-door collection level and continue throughout the value chain. They developed an integrated dashboard for real-time, on-the-ground tracking of daily waste collection in participating municipalities. Additional user-facing apps add in other tech-enabled improvements, like route optimization for sanitation truck drivers. To date, WeVOIS is operating in 5 cities and working directly with municipalities. Additionally, their technology is used by partners in 13 cities across India

“Tech-forward emerging companies like WeVOIS are key to addressing India’s waste management challenges in a way that sets cities up for a cleaner and more inclusive future,” said Upaya’s India Country Director, AB Chakravarthy. “Their technology platform brings transparency, efficiency and accountability to the waste management space benefitting all stakeholders involved particularly to sanitation workers who are the fulcrum to this value chain”.

The investment from Upaya — its 35th since 2011 — is WeVOIS’s first institutional investment in a funding round that will support working capital for the company as they seek to expand to more cities across India. As part of Upaya’s active investment portfolio, WeVOIS will also receive support in impact measurement and management, and in raising co-investments and follow-on capital.

“WeVOIS has emerged as the most preferred choice by the municipalities in a recent nationwide survey conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs regarding leveraging the best practices in waste management,” said WeVOIS co-founders Abhishek Gupta and Abhinav Vashistha. “We have been receiving highly increased demand from municipalities and other waste management stakeholders, the capital raised by us will help us in meeting this demand. We are thrilled to welcome Upaya on board, this collaboration will help us in staying on track with our primary objective of making a positive impact on the lives of sanitation workers and the environment.”

WeVOIS is also the latest company to receive investment through Upaya’s $1M ‘recycling philanthropy’ initiative. This pioneering model pools together foundation grants in a fund from which to draw investments in early-stage social enterprises. Financial returns from these investments are returned back to the original donor with a capped premium of up to 5%. This unique structure lets one donation make an impact over and over again, and opens up investment in “missing middle” companies to funders who typically cannot make smaller single investments.

ABOUT UPAYA SOCIAL VENTURES

Upaya Social Ventures is building a dignified economy by providing investment and support to early-stage businesses creating sustainable livelihoods for people living in extreme poverty. Upaya’s award-winning impact-first model seeks out and supports oft-overlooked companies creating work that is safe, stable, inclusive, and rewarding—all of which have a transformative impact on families, communities, and economies. Since its founding in 2011, Upaya’s portfolio companies have created over 30,000 dignified jobs across India. Please visit www.upayasv.org for more information.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Meg Massey
mmassey@upayasv.org 

Photo credit: WeVOIS