This is the reason why hundreds of messaging platforms, social networks, and dating apps are launched each year.
Venture capital heavyweight, Y Combinator, reportedly asked entrepreneurs to deal a certain problem that is experienced across the globe: fresh, clean water shortage.
According to the United Nations, at least 1.2 billion people suffer from water scarcity. Another 1.6 billion people live in countries that lack infrastructures to deliver water reliably to the public.
A blog maintained by Y Combinator revealed how the company thinks they are close to letting technology produce clean water for everyone. Clean water will eventually become cheap and extremely abundant. Y Combinator intends to create clean water that is more than enough not just for the people in America, but also for everyone else in the world. They aim to provide water that can be used in any way necessary.
“We want to help founders that are currently working on the problem of water shortage to get to the destination they intend to arrive in faster. Thousands of ideas have already been produced and from a wide range including lower cost desalination plants and novel purification technologies to mechanisms that reduce water usage and smart irrigation systems. Ideas that were completely different have also been formulated and looked into by the company.
The incubator published a long list of areas that they were interested in delving into last year. They said they want to see more and more startups coming to them with concepts and ideas that will have an impact on a global scale. In the list, buzzy fields like biotechnology and artificial intelligence were included. So were tools for all underserved communities, post-automation job creation, and food and farming.
Water was mentioned in this list, but now it stands alone as Y Combinator’s sole area of interest. The UN claims that rising global temperatures would translate to the shrinkage of water supplies for billions of people from all over the world in the next 100 years.
Years ago, water did not receive any investment amount, and if it does now, it would be somewhat of a miracle in the digital marketplace or social network. Hundreds of water-related startups are listed on Angellist as of the moment, but none of them have Airbnb or Snapchat’s cachet.
It is likely that Y Combinator’s big water startup won’t give them several billion dollars. However, if they actually come across a startup that successfully solves the water shortage problem, it could improve the lives of billions of people. This, by human measurements, translates to being priceless. This is definitely worth far more than any other startup company Y Combinator has funded in the past.
The funding cycle of Y Combinator has already started last January and it is planned to end in March this year. Applications have also been welcomed and hundreds of willing startups are being reviewed. The funding cycle of the most well-known incubator is held at Mountain View, California.
