Danone Communities strengthens its Safe drinking Water portfolio by investing in Nazava a social enterprise selling household water filters in Indonesia

Paris, October 21st, 2021 – Danone Communities, the impact investment fund and social business incubator for low-income populations, announces a new investment in the social business Nazava in Indonesia. With now 11 million people positively impacted around the world, Danone Communities accelerates access to safe drinking water for all, thus contributing to the UN’s 6th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).

2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water*. In this context, Danone Communities announces a new investment in Nazava, a social business whose mission is to provide safe and affordable drinking water to everybody everywhere by producing and selling high quality, low-cost household water filters.

Created in 2009 in Indonesia by Guido van Hofwegen and Lieselotte Heederik, Nazava provides safe drinking water to 450K low income people. By 2024 the ambition is to reach 2M people.

In the 4th biggest country in the world in terms of population, where 72% of the population uses well water and 26 000 children die annually through diarrhea caused by the of consumption of contaminated water**, Nazava has developed an innovative model. in collaboration with local and international universities such as ITB, UNPAD and Delft university. The globally tested water filter has been designed to be aspirational and simple to use. It is distributed widely in Indonesia through the sales network of Micro Finance Institutes, resellers and e-commerce sites. Overall the Nazava Water Filters have a positive impact on society in the following ways:

• Improved health through the reduction of water borne diseases
• Reduced CO2 emissions by eliminating the need to boil water using fossil energy
• Reduced waste
• Increased the disposable income in the households (saves US$78/year/HH)
• Increased time available in the household (saves 2 hours / week / HH)

On this new investment, Valérie Mazon, Business Development Waters Director at Danone Communities commented “I am delighted to welcome Nazava in the portfolio of Danone Communities Water. For Danone Communities it is the first time working with a household water filter company as well as with an Indonesian company. Nazava has an innovative ways to reach consumers by leveraging Micro finance institutes, helping more consumers to pay for household filters through an affordable instalment plan. It is also a business with a hybrid finance model, selling carbon credits thanks to their contribution to CO2 emission reductions."

Danone Communities impacts more than 10 million people, every day

Through all its investments in social businesses around the world, Danone Communities impacts 11 million people, every day.

With this 10th investment in access to safe drinking water, Danone Communities strengthens its portfolio and keep supporting decentralised water treatment solutions, from water kiosks to purification devices in schools, to household water filters. This diversity is key to serve the 2 billion people who still don’t have access to safe drinking water, and to better answer their local contexts, needs and habits.

*Source: UNICEF / WHO

**Source: Nazava

About Danone Communities (http://www.danonecommunities.com/ )

Danone Communities is an incubator of business solutions targeting low income communities living with 2 to 5 dollars a day with aspirational products and services, addressing access to a nutritious and sustainable diet, and access to safe drinking water.

Danone Communities empowers innovative social entrepreneurs to achieve sustainable social impact. It does so by investing in social businesses as a minority shareholder, providing capital, technical and managerial expertise. Starting as a historical partnership with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus to develop the Grameen Danone Foods Company in Bangladesh, Danone Communities has continued to invest in social businesses throughout the years from Senegal to Mexico.

To date, the portfolio consists of a total of 15 social business investments made in 17 countries with 11 million beneficiaries. Danone Communities also organizes every year learning expeditions (LEX) to foster best practices exchanges, cross fertilization and collaboration within the community of Safe Water Enterprises