Aqua for All’s collaboration with partners on the Water Access Acceleration Fund (W2AF) has been featured in Business-Led Blended Finance: A Practical Playbook, published by the CFO Coalition for the SDGs of the UN Global Compact.
Launched during London Climate Action Week 2026, the playbook explores how blended finance can help mobilise capital towards the Sustainable Development Goals. W2AF is featured alongside other innovative examples demonstrating how blended finance structures can be used to address development challenges.
Scaling finance for water access
Managed by Incofin Investment Management and initiated in partnership with Danone Communities, W2AF is the first private equity blended finance fund dedicated to scaling businesses focused on water access.
The fund provides growth capital alongside strategic technical assistance to enterprises across the value chain in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America. W2AF has so far invested in two companies: Rite Water Solutions in India and Spouts International in Uganda and Rwanda.
In April 2025, Incofin announced the final close of W2AF at €61 million, exceeding its original €50 million target. Catalytic capital for the fund has been provided by Danone, Aqua for All, Impact Fund Denmark, the European Investment Bank and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Alongside its investments, W2AF includes a dedicated Technical Assistance Facility enabled by Aqua for All and Norfund.
Aqua for All’s role is closely connected to our approach to blended finance: using catalytic capital to help address financing barriers and enable more capital to support water and sanitation enterprises. This is central to our ambition to demonstrate financing models that can be replicated and contribute to longer-term market development.
Demonstrated impact
So far, Rite Water’s work has contributed to safe water access for approximately 12.5 million people across around 16,000 villages in India.
The company is also active in solar-powered water and irrigation solutions. In December 2025, Rite Water installed 2,842 solar water pumps in 30 days as part of a wider initiative in Maharashtra that delivered 45,911 pumps and achieved a Guinness World Record.
Why blended finance matters
With the global Sustainable Development Goals financing gap estimated at trillions of dollars annually, public and philanthropic resources alone cannot meet the scale of investment required. Blended finance can use those resources more efficiently by addressing risks and barriers that otherwise prevent capital from reaching sectors such as water and sanitation.
The examples included in the UN Global Compact playbook provide practical lessons on how actors across sectors can contribute to this transition.
We look forward to advancing this work together with our partners, to strengthen sustainable water and sanitation markets.
Download Business-Led Blended Finance: A Practical Playbook and read the W2AF case study on page 78.