Toilet Board Coalition’s LATAM Accelerator Cohort
One of the Top 20 Most Influential Projects of 2024
For revolutionizing sanitation management in Latin America
Region: Latin America Sector: Infrastructure UN SDGs: 6, Clean Water and Sanitation; 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities
Venugopal Gupta wants to make sure the 3.5 billion people around the globe who need sanitation, get it. “Half of the world does not have access to safely managed sanitation, which is defined as a toilet and safe disposal of waste,” says Gupta, managing director of acceleration at the Toilet Board Coalition, a business-led membership organization that seeks to advance what Gupta refers to as the “sanitation economy.” And he and the Toilet Board Coalition, along with partner organizations, believe achieving this lies within the business potential of sanitation.
In 2023, Gupta led Toilet Board Coalition’s new project — the launch of its first Latin American Accelerator Cohort program — in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank and the U.S.-based nonprofit, Water for People. Gupta explains that the Toilet Board Coalition’s accelerator programs are well-established in Asia and Africa, where the organization has been working since 2016. The Toilet Board Coalition had long wanted to expand its work to Latin America, but it had neither the funding nor the team to do so until it partnered with the Inter-American Development Bank, which has clean water and sanitation as one of its focus, intervention, and funding priorities. The support of the Bank allowed the Toilet Board Coalition to create its first non-English program, producing materials and programming in Spanish.
Launching the Latin American Accelerator Cohort involved announcing a call for small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) working in the region’s sanitation space to apply for a spot in the first cohort. Gupta says that the Toilet Board Coalition and its partners expected 25-30 applications. They received 45. “It was a huge surprise for us,” says Gupta, who adds that the eagerness of SMEs in the region affirms how much potential exists for the sanitation economy to grow in Latin America. “The size of the sanitation economy in Latin America is $19 billion USD,” Gupta says. “If we can accelerate business solutions to safely manage sanitation solutions at full scale, it will inject money into the region’s economy.” It will also achieve progress toward one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: 6, Clean Water and Sanitation — ensuring greater service coverage and access for a larger number of people.
The 45 applicants to the first Latin American Accelerator Cohort were subjected to a rigorous selection process. The Toilet Board Coalition’s board members formed a selection task force, which conducted evaluations based on application data, followed by interviews with SMEs. Ultimately, they selected three businesses and invited them to join the inaugural Latin American Accelerator Cohort.
These businesses — Brixsan and M & S Agroindustria, both based in Peru, along with Honduras-based Servicios y Soluciones A & S — received 10 months’ worth of expert business coaching, corporate mentorship, and access to investment. Gupta says that the questions driving the support that the cohort received were “What markets are they serving? and “Is this business solution scalable?” Coaches, mentors, and investors all worked closely with the cohort members to refine their business plans and develop specific, actionable plans to scale service, as well as income.
“Sanitation doesn’t receive the support it deserves from funders,” Gupta points out, which is why the Accelerator guides members to look closely at how they can turn the sanitation crisis into a business opportunity, while at the same time seeking to serve their communities. “At a very broad level,” he adds, “I see that the population doesn’t have access to safely managed sanitation. Entrepreneurs think of solutions to address crises. We need business solutions.”
Members of the first Latin American cohort agree that the support they received has been beneficial in helping them grow their businesses. “The experience with the Toilet Board Coalition Accelerator has been very beneficial for me and my business,” says Ingrid Cortez, of Servicios y Soluciones A & S. Gupta says that the inaugural cohort of the Latin American Accelerator was so successful that the Toilet Board Coalition and its partners have invested in 2024 and 2025 cohorts, each of which will consist of six businesses, doubling the program’s size. “UNICEF says we need to accelerate our rate of progress by five times to reach safely managed sanitation for all by 2030,” Gupta says. By expanding its Latin American Accelerator cohort, Gupta and the Toilet Board Coalition hope to be part of that solution.