SBI Foundation, Social Alpha Select Top 4 Start-ups from Assistive Technology Challenge

Representative Image via  Eren Li from Pexels

Winning start-ups, Tinkertech, Cureous Labs, Urvogelbio, and Quarkbitz, to get grant and incubation support for 1 year

A comfortable wearable assistive technology device for the deaf, a device for pressure injuries and bedsores, a biofluid based diagnostics tool to effectively manage central nervous system diseases and other neurodegenerative conditions, and an AI-powered mobile app that empowers the blind, were the four winning solutions at the recently concluded Techtonic: Innovation in Assistive Technology. Jointly conducted by Social Alpha and the SBI Foundation, the challenge invited innovators and entrepreneurs working on products and services that address the difficulties faced by people with disabilities (PwDs) and enable them to lead an empowered life.

The challenge received an overwhelming participation from startups across India. The participants were evaluated based on technological innovation, social impact, and business roadmap among other parameters. The program focused on the following areas: Visual Impairment, Developmental Disorders and Chronic Neurological Conditions, Locomotor Disabilities, and Speech & Hearing Disabilities.

The four winners were chosen from 21 finalists. The winners, Tinkertech, Cureous Labs, Urvogelbio, and Quarkbitz, are eligible for a grant support of INR 15 lakhs, and a year-long Incubation support from Social Alpha. The top 10 finalists, including the winners, are eligible for a Certificate Program in Assistive Technology Solutions by National Institute for Speech and Hearing (NISH).

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Kshama Kothari, Director of Health and Wellness, Social Alpha, said, “We, at Social Alpha, recognise the need to promote and support R&D in Assistive Technology that can play a pivotal role in reducing social gaps and improve the quality of life of PwDs. I thank SBI Foundation for its enduring commitment to creating an inclusive development paradigm and its support to the Techtonic initiative. Social Alpha will strive to create an enabling ecosystem for AT products and services and catalyse their lab-to-market journey."

Smt. Manjula Kalyanasundaram, Managing Director - SBI Foundation, said, “SBI Foundation remains committed to using technology for development, making it accessible to everyone in our society. According to estimates, 1 in every 12 households in India has a family member with a disability. However, due to low literacy levels, social stigma, and lack of opportunities, PwDs remain the most excluded members of the society. Through our flagship program Centre of Excellence for Persons with Disabilities and partners, we aim to scout and nurture assistive technologies that foster inclusivity, remove barriers for PwDs in everyday life and promote holistic development and growth."

According to estimates, India accounts for 40 to 80 million PwDs - i.e., 1 in 12 households has a family member with a disability. However, due to low literacy levels, social stigma, and lack of opportunities, PwDs remain the most excluded members of society. A large number of children with disabilities stay out of school, disabled adults are unlikely to be employed, families with a disabled member tend to be economically weaker, and the ageing population puts a lot of financial stress at both the household and national level. Techtonic: Innovation in Assistive Technology is aimed at scouting and nurturing assistive technologies that foster inclusivity and remove barriers for PwDs in everyday life.

About the winners of the Techtonic: Innovation in Assistive Technology

Tinkertech has built “TranscribeGlass”, a comfortable wearable assistive technology device for the deaf, hard of hearing, the elderly, and other people who want to improve their comprehension of spoken communication using captions.

Cureous Labs has built a solution for pressure injuries and bedsores in spinal cord injury, quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis patients, who are bedridden and lack mobility.

Urvogelbio is developing and commercializing biofluid-based diagnostics to effectively manage central nervous system diseases for prognosis/diagnosis of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Quarkbitz has built “AudibleVision", a multipurpose AI powered mobile app that empowers the blind and people with low vision to access visual information. During the pandemic, it helped users to maintain social distancing.

Search underway for India's Most Innovative Assistive Tech Startups in 2021 with Prosus Social Impact Challenge for Accessibility (SICA)

Award-winning initiative aims to attract applications from startups in every region of India

NEW DELHI, Aug. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This year's search for India's most innovative assistive technology startups is underway with the launch today of Prosus SICA 2021.

Created last year by Prosus - in partnership with Invest India, Social Alpha and the World Health Organization - the initiative invites Indian startups with the most promising solutions in the assistive technology space to compete for an annual grant and access to the Prosus SICA mentorship programme.

With more than 70 million Indians estimated to live with some form of disability* the societal impact of improving lives and empowering people through assistive technology can be immense. Prosus SICA was recognised earlier this month as "CSR Initiative of the Year" by the AssisTech Foundation.

Prosus has committed INR 16,500,000 to the initiative over three years, and each year awards grants to three successful startups. Partners including Invest India and Social Alpha provide additional mentoring and financing opportunities, while WHO supports the programme with technical assistance.

In its inaugural edition in 2020, Prosus SICA received over 200 applications from 25 states and seven union territories across India. The top three startups recognised for their ingenuity and impact across a range of assistive technologies were Sohum Innovation Lab (Bengaluru), NeoMotion (Chennai) and Stamuri (New Delhi).

In addition to the top startups, two other finalists were enrolled into the SICA mentorship programme to benefit from Prosus's experience in supporting entrepreneurs and helping them to succeed: Cogniable (Delhi) and Thinkerbell Solutions (Delhi).

For Prosus SICA 2021, an expert panel of judges will assemble to identify innovative startups with the most potential to positively impact the lives of persons with disabilities. (Information on the 2020 panel here). Eligible startups can submit their applications from now until 19th October. The top startups will be announced in December to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Commenting, Sehraj Singh, India Managing Director, Prosus, said: "Enabling entrepreneurs across the world to improve people's daily lives is our mission at Prosus. Here in India, the needs of 70 million persons living with some form of disability have remained under-served despite a vibrant startup ecosystem. We believe that there can be a thriving market for assistive technologies and last year's excellent response to our inaugural Prosus SICA initiative validated this belief. We are so proud to continue the journey this year and I encourage all entrepreneurs in the assistive technology space to join our mission by entering Prosus SICA 2021."

Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO, Invest India, said: "The excellence of Indian ingenuity has been at the forefront. The ability of our entrepreneurs to pivot and develop impactful frugal solutions is India's strength. This challenge will lead the way in transforming assistive technologies in the country and propel India to become a world leader in the field."

Chapal Khasnabis, Head (a.i) Access to Assistive Technology and Medical Devices, WHO, Geneva, said "Entrepreneurs across the country are attempting to innovate in a cost-effective and scalable manner to solve for the unique needs and requirements in healthcare aided through assistive technology. Prosus SICA is a unique programme that brings together industry expertise, financing and executional capabilities. We are proud to support the programme to transform India's healthcare landscape aided by Made-In-India assistive technology for her own population and beyond."

Manoj Kumar, Founder and CEO, Social Alpha, said, "Assistive technologies is a 25 billion dollar market globally but affordability and user experience issues hinder the market development in India, despite having a large population that needs access to high quality assistive solutions. Over the last few years, Social Alpha has been actively developing the sector through innovation curation, venture development, and financial innovation to facilitate market access and customer adoption. I am optimistic that Prosus SICA 2021 will unlock more opportunities and resources for innovators and help them go to market as they create world class solutions."

Interested startups can learn more about Prosus SICA 2021 and the application process on https://www.startupindia.gov.in

The top three startups will be awarded grants of:

1. First prize: INR 25 Lakhs
2. Second prize: INR 18 Lakhs
3. Third prize: INR 12 Lakhs

In addition to the grant award, eligible startups receive an opportunity to work with Social Alpha, an incubator that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship across India. As incubation partner, Social Alpha can also provide up to $40,000 in equity to the top startups.

The top five finalists are also inducted into the Prosus SICA mentorship programme where they will benefit from Prosus's experience in supporting entrepreneurs and helping them to succeed.

About Prosus

Prosus is a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. Operating and investing globally in markets with long-term growth potential, Prosus builds leading consumer internet companies that empower people and enrich communities.

The group is focused on building meaningful businesses in the online classifieds, food delivery, payments and fintech, and education technology sectors in markets including India, Russia, and Brazil. Through its ventures team, Prosus invests in areas including health, logistics, blockchain, and social commerce. Prosus actively seeks new opportunities to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs who are using technology to improve people's everyday lives. Today, Prosus companies and associates help improve the lives of more than 2 billion users globally.

For more information on Prosus and Prosus SICA visit: https://www.prosus.com/prosus-sica

LinkedIn: ProsusInIndia
Twitter: @Prosus_Ventures
Facebook: ProsusGroup

About Invest India

Invest India, set up in 2009, is a non-profit venture under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.

As the national investment promotion and facilitation agency, Invest India focuses on sector-specific investor targeting and development of new partnerships to enable sustainable investments in India. In addition to a core team that focuses on sustainable investments, Invest India also partners with substantial investment promotion agencies and multilateral organisations. Invest India also actively works with several Indian states to build capacity as well as bring in global best practices in investment targeting, promotion and facilitation areas.

LinkedIn: InvestIndia
Twitter: Investindia
Facebook: InvestindiaIPA
Instagram: Investindiaofficial

About Social Alpha

Social Alpha is a multistage innovation curation and venture development platform for science and technology start-ups that address the most critical social, economic and environmental challenges through the power of entrepreneurship and market-creating innovations. Since its inception in 2016, Social Alpha has supported more 150+ start-ups including 50+ seed investments. For more information, please visit www.socialalpha.org.

LinkedIn: Social Alpha
Twitter: @Social AlphaIN
Facebook: @Social AlphaIN
Instagram: socialalpha_in

About World Health Organization

The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States across six regions, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Its goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being.

For more information contact:

Edtech Startup Braingroom Raises INR 1.5 Cr from IAN, Social Alpha and Startup Oasis

Braingroom will use the funding to add more components to the application-oriented learning approach and develop Micro-Entrepreneurship courses

New Delhi, July 19th, 2021: Braingroom, a multilingual online learning platform focused on students from lower and middle-income families, has raised INR 1.5 Crores from IAN. Social Alpha and Startup Oasis joined the round.

The Chennai-based startup will use the funding to develop new courses and content in different languages and new product features. The company is also eyeing market expansion with a vision to train one million rural students and make them job-ready in the coming 3 years.

Three engineering graduates, Madhula Sathyamoorthy, Naliene Ramasamy, and Kalaiarsi Periasamy identified the need to develop impactful EdTech solutions that can bridge the employability gap between urban and rural youth. This prompted them to launch Braingroom in 2017. Through this multilingual online learning platform, the co-founders aspire to create high-impact technical tools to facilitate quality learning outcomes for everyone.

 

Braingroom follows a hands-on learning approach with a focus on application-oriented learning. It is one of the very few multilingual online learning platforms in India to use AI Chatbots and Gamification to create a completely personalized learning experience.

The startup partners with various expert training providers across the globe and provides customized online learning solutions for both B2C and B2B markets with a multilingual flavour.

Speaking on the development, Madhula Satyamoorthy, Co-Founder of Braingroom said, “Through Braingroom, we are creating high-quality technical and skill training with the right combination of vernacular content, Bots and gamifications. These will help us make learning more hands-on, interactive, personalized, and engaging for millions of students from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, and most importantly for those from middle and lower-income families. In the next three years, we are aiming to train one million rural students and make them job-ready. We are grateful to have received the funding from IAN, Social Alpha, and Startup Oasis as we are also are looking to invest in expanding our brand to new markets.”

So far, Braingroom has trained around 35,000 students across India. It also works with various Corporate CSR Teams and NGO Foundations to train rural students across the nation.

Further adding, Pradeep K Jaisingh, Lead Investor at IAN said, “Around 100 million students from middle- and lower-income families, especially from tier-2 and tier-3 cities are seeking upskilling and cross-skilling opportunities. Braingroom is the new-age multilingual platform to make online learning more affordable and accessible for students from all backgrounds. All power to Braingroom founders to bring innovative technologies with their educational expertise to make learning personalized and engaging, and contributing to employability in small-town India.”

Manoj Kumar, Founder and CEO of Social Alpha, said, “We invested in Braingroom seeing their commitment to democratize online learning and making it accessible to students in tier 2 and 3 cities. Braingroom’s model of integrating new-age technology into learning and skilling to uplift a student’s career trajectory and making them job-ready is the need of the hour as we see a huge number of youngsters entering the workforce in the coming years. We are proud of our association with Braingroom and support them in their journey to unleash the potential of millions of students.’’

Going forward, the company is planning to build end-to-end training solutions for its B2B partners. Braingroom will add more components to the application-oriented learning approach for students and develop women-focussed Micro-Entrepreneurship courses.

About Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor-members, for the last 11 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Consure, Fareye amongst many others.

IAN has also launched the IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore fund, is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund which aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech, and hardware. With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores.

Govt's BIRAC with Social Alpha and Mphasis are Looking for Startups in Assistive Technology Sector

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Government of India, along with Social Alpha and Mphasis, announced the launch of the ‘BIRAC-Social Alpha Quest for Assistive Technologies – supported by Mphasis’ today, a search for startups in the Assistive Technology sector to support innovations focussed on enabling and empowering solutions for persons-with-disabilities.

The Quest will identify and select up to 10 innovations that enhance the learning, working and independent living for persons-with-disabilities. These winning innovations will also be provided up to INR 20 lakhs each to facilitate their market access journey, for implementation of work orders.

Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary DBT & Chairperson, BIRAC said, “BIRAC is promoting development of innovative biotech solutions to address unmet needs. A number of initiatives rolled out in last few years have positively impacted the Biotech Startup ecosystem which has now grown to 2500+ across the country. This includes products and technologies focused for persons-with-disabilities. BIRAC - Social alpha launch of “Quest for Assistive Technologies” intends to identify, handhold and deploy Assistive Technology solutions for the deserving ones. This partnership could prove instrumental in building a pipeline of innovative and affordable solutions. I hope that this initiative will encourage national & international stakeholders to join hands in delivering assistive technologies at scale.

Addressing the audience at the launch event, Dr. Mohd. Aslam, MD, BIRAC said, “BIRAC promotes entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs to undertake strategic translational research to develop innovative products and technologies. Technology driven solutions can steer the change for societal well-being and impact billions of lives. I hope that BIRAC-Social alpha Quest for Assistive Technologies would provide a platform for start-ups to leverage this engagement for creating and deploying innovative assistive technologies across the country.

[caption id="attachment_131539" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] (Left to Right) Manoj Kumar, Meenu Bhambhani and Dr Manish Diwan[/caption]

Speaking at the launch event, Manoj Kumar, CEO and Co-founder, Social Alpha, and Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tata Trusts said, “There is a huge shortage of quality solutions that cater to and empower persons-with-disabilities at a price point they can afford.  Sometimes we come across innovators who have built the right prototypes, but find them struggling with the end user acceptance, design for manufacturing and market access. Affordability and user experience are the key to large scale adoption of such solutions and our program is designed to validate the product-market fit, help with clinical trials where required and bridge the gaps that exist in the distribution and service channels. We have already incubated four innovative companies in this sector—Bionic Yantra, Blee Technologies, Innaumation, and Tactopus, and through this Quest we are deepening our commitment the sector.”

Meenu Bhambhani, Vice President & Head- Corporate Social Responsibility, Mphasis, addressed the event, and said, “At Mphasis we have a strong focus on improving the lives of persons-with-disability. We have partnered with Social Alpha to support the curation, design and implementation of the Quest. This initiative is aimed at introducing game changing innovations to the market; building this cohesive ecosystem with critical organizations will significantly fast-track the lab-to-market journey for innovators. We believe this can really move the needle for disability inclusion in India and through this partnership we are committed to further the cause” Mphasis, through its CSR initiatives, has been doing pioneering and cutting edge work to promote disability inclusion in the mainstream. This partnership with Social Alpha resonates with our focus on providing solutions that enhance equal participation and dignity for people with disabilities in all spheres of life especially through inclusive solutions.

Upon selection, the winners of the Quest will be enrolled into the Accelerator for Inclusive Solutions — a game-changing 3-month accelerator program where they will be given the chance to work with selected implementation agencies within the Social Alpha, BIRAC and Tata Trusts network, interact directly with potential users of their product, and gain exposure to other funders, buyers and CSR initiatives. As a unique feature, these winning start-ups will also be provided up to 20 lakhs each to kick-start their market access journey, for implementation of work orders, and further support for clinical validation and product engineering. In addition, the start-ups will also have the opportunity to work closely with experts on price discovery, cost optimization, market validation, and marketing and sales.

Multiple estimates suggest that there are anywhere between 4 to 8 crore disabled people in India—i.e. one in twelve households has a family member with a disability. Moreover, due to low literacy levels, social stigma and lack of opportunities, people with disabilities remain the most excluded and unidentified members of Indian society. Large number of children with disabilities stay out of school, disabled adults are likely to be unemployed, and families with a disabled member tend to be economically weaker. While there are several players working to improve the situation, currently, there is no concerted industry effort. To address this gap, Social Alpha also announced that it would be launching a unique Open Innovation Platform which will serve three key purposes: first, identification of key problems and the critical areas where technological interventions are necessary, second, collaboration of innovators and entrepreneurs to develop the technology to serve identified problem, and third, facilitation of  market access for these innovations by aggregating end users and inviting funders, eventually reducing the cost to the end consumer.

“We envisage this platform to include organisations working with persons-with-disabilities, experts and thought leaders, start-ups, channel partners, CSRs arms of companies, family offices and foundations that focus on disabilities, as well as Central and State governments. This platform will bring together the innovation and investment ecosystems; map problems with potential solutions and help capital allocation decision of both philanthropic and commercial capital providers” said Manoj Kumar.

Presently, Social Alpha has partnered with several leading organizations working for inclusivity including Enable India, Artilab, Jaipur Foot, Saksham Trust, Xavier’s Resource Center for the Visually Challenged, National Institute of Speech and Hearing, and AssisTech at IIT-Delhi.

The Quest for Assistive Technologies is open for applicants starting today, June 27, 2019 and will be accepting applications till August 15, 2019. For further information visit - www.socialalpha.org/assisistivetech

Tata Trusts, Social Alpha Launch Fellowship Program to Empower Entrepreneurs with Deep science & Technology focus

The Tata Trusts and Social Alpha announced the launch of their flagship fellowship program, the Social Alpha Entrepreneurs for Impact (E4i) Program, here today. The E4i program is a 12-month immersive fellowship that equips passionate ‘entrepreneurs-in-the-making’ to leverage India’s deep science, innovation and entrepreneurship environment.

Speaking at the launch, Manoj Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO, Social Alpha said, “We wanted to create an avenue for passionate, empathetic and mission-driven changemakers to scout for potential technologies, create co-founding teams, build and test their solutions, and convert them into impactful ventures. We believe that by harnessing the power of science and technology innovations and mission-driven impact entrepreneurship, we can address some of India’s most critical social, economic and environmental challenges."

The first cohort of the E4i program will focus on finding solutions across a few high priority areas like water, sanitation, health, agriculture, energy and environment. Finalists will be encouraged to adopt a problem statement in one of these focus sectors, and identify or develop a solution that has the potential to create impact at scale while remaining financially sustainable. All throughout, Social Alpha will provide support to E4i finalists through its network of experts from public and private sector, non-profits and foundations.

The program itself is structured to include experiential, immersive and instructional components that mimic the lifecycle of an enterprise. From observing the problems on-ground, validating and refining their theory of change, converting prototypes into viable solutions, to developing preliminary business plans- finalists will undergo a practical and hands-on learning experience encompassing all the strategic ins-and-outs of running an enterprise. “As our focus is to impart useful and practical know-how, E4i finalists will have access to mentors – with background in R&D, entrepreneurship, venture investing and grassroots development action, who can guide them towards creating a successful venture, through real world knowledge, insights, networks and connections. They can also expect a lot of hands on support from successful innovators and entrepreneurs”, said Kumar.

“Another critical aspect of the E4i program is that we are providing a small safety blanket to all the finalists by way of a monthly stipend of INR 60,000. This is not compensation for their foregone salary or career trade-offs, but a means to cover their essential expenses over the 12 month period. We believe the provision of stipend will allow us to attract people who are ready to assume the entrepreneurial risk but have economic constraints holding them back. We aim to make the E4i program a catalyst for a new wave of science and technology entrepreneurship in the country.” adds Kumar.

The E4i program is now accepting applications; Deadline for application is January 6th, 2019. To apply log onto www.socialalphachallenge.org.

Phool, An IIT Kanpur backed Startup Recycling Temple Waste Wins United Nations' Award

Kanpur-based startup Phool (Fomerly HelpUsGreen), which converts flowers and offerings collected from religious places into biodegradable alternative to Thermacol and incense sticks received the United Nations Young Leaders Award at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, yesterday.

Ankit Agarwal, Co-founder, Phool (Fomerly HelpUsGreen), was selected as one of the 17 young leaders for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations, at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Ankit was selected from more than 18,000 youth from more than 184 countries. As a young leader, for the next two years, Ankit will be engaged in UN advocacy efforts and support young people in the realization of the goals by collaborating with the UN on strategic opportunities. The Young Leaders, representing five continents, seventeen countries, and their constituencies of millions of young people around the world, range from scientists, inventors, story tellers and activists.

Related Reading - 10 Indian Startups That Are Making Earth A Better Place To Live

The UN Young Leaders is a flagship initiative led by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres's envoy of youth. The jury comprised of social visionaries and SDG advocates spanning across a range of backgrounds.

Founded in May 2015, by Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi, Phool (Fomerly HelpUsGreen) has been supported and incubated by Tata Trusts' Social Alpha and IIT Kanpur. Phool is a sustainable solution to the monumental 'temple-waste' problem in India. Having pioneered the 'flowercycling' technology to preserve the Rivers Ganges from becoming a dumping ground for temple waste; they have recycled 11,060 metric tonnes of temple-waste flowers till date. Phool collects 8.4 tons of floral-waste daily and is upcycled into biodegradable packaging material, charcoal-free incense and natural vermicompost.

In an effort to create a circular economy, Phool employs women who were earlier manual scavengers thereby impacting more than 73 Manual Scavenger families and increasing their income 6x times. They are also being provided with facilities like insurance, bus service and medical benefits.

Ankit Agarwal, UN Young leader for SGD said, "We are deeply humbled by the UN recognition and opportunity to represent our nation, India at the prestigious forum furthering our work towards cleaning the Ganges and 2030 agenda for sustainable development."

"Three years ago, Member States committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, an ambitious agenda for people and planet. In order to achieve these ambitious Goals, we must engage today's youth and empower a generation which knows about the Goals, cares about their success and actively works toward their realization," said Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake - UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Youth.

Manoj Kumar, Head, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tata Trusts & CEO, Social Alpha said, "Phool has very innovatively applied the regenerative system model by recycling waste and also creating employment for the extremely poor and underprivileged. We are proud of what the founders have achieved in a short period."

Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Director IIT Kanpur, said, "Flower waste to Greening, IIT Kanpur is proud to be the technology partner of Phool, a company dedicated to not only greening the environment but also in the process empowering thousands of women through this endeavor matching IIT Kanpur's credo of 'Technology for Sustainable development'."

Phool is also set to receive the 'Goal Keepers Award' award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation this month in New York and the UN Momentum of Change Award, which will be awarded as part of COP26 Summit in Poland in December. Earlier this year, Ankit Agarwal was named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

Phool, An IIT Kanpur backed Startup Recycling Temple Waste Wins United Nations Award

Kanpur-based startup Phool (Fomerly HelpUsGreen), which converts flowers and offerings collected from religious places into biodegradable alternative to Thermacol and incense sticks received the United Nations Young Leaders Award at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, yesterday.

Ankit Agarwal, Co-founder, Phool (Fomerly HelpUsGreen), was selected as one of the 17 young leaders for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations, at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Ankit was selected from more than 18,000 youth from more than 184 countries. As a young leader, for the next two years, Ankit will be engaged in UN advocacy efforts and support young people in the realization of the goals by collaborating with the UN on strategic opportunities. The Young Leaders, representing five continents, seventeen countries, and their constituencies of millions of young people around the world, range from scientists, inventors, story tellers and activists.

Related Reading - 10 Indian Startups That Are Making Earth A Better Place To Live

The UN Young Leaders is a flagship initiative led by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres's envoy of youth. The jury comprised of social visionaries and SDG advocates spanning across a range of backgrounds.

Founded in May 2015, by Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi, Phool (Fomerly HelpUsGreen) has been supported and incubated by Tata Trusts' Social Alpha and IIT Kanpur. Phool is a sustainable solution to the monumental 'temple-waste' problem in India. Having pioneered the 'flowercycling' technology to preserve the Rivers Ganges from becoming a dumping ground for temple waste; they have recycled 11,060 metric tonnes of temple-waste flowers till date. Phool collects 8.4 tons of floral-waste daily and is upcycled into biodegradable packaging material, charcoal-free incense and natural vermicompost.

In an effort to create a circular economy, Phool employs women who were earlier manual scavengers thereby impacting more than 73 Manual Scavenger families and increasing their income 6x times. They are also being provided with facilities like insurance, bus service and medical benefits.

Ankit Agarwal, UN Young leader for SGD said, "We are deeply humbled by the UN recognition and opportunity to represent our nation, India at the prestigious forum furthering our work towards cleaning the Ganges and 2030 agenda for sustainable development."

"Three years ago, Member States committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, an ambitious agenda for people and planet. In order to achieve these ambitious Goals, we must engage today's youth and empower a generation which knows about the Goals, cares about their success and actively works toward their realization," said Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake - UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Youth.

Manoj Kumar, Head, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tata Trusts & CEO, Social Alpha said, "Phool has very innovatively applied the regenerative system model by recycling waste and also creating employment for the extremely poor and underprivileged. We are proud of what the founders have achieved in a short period."

Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Director IIT Kanpur, said, "Flower waste to Greening, IIT Kanpur is proud to be the technology partner of Phool, a company dedicated to not only greening the environment but also in the process empowering thousands of women through this endeavor matching IIT Kanpur's credo of 'Technology for Sustainable development'."

Phool is also set to receive the 'Goal Keepers Award' award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation this month in New York and the UN Momentum of Change Award, which will be awarded as part of COP26 Summit in Poland in December. Earlier this year, Ankit Agarwal was named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

Social Alpha & Tata Trusts Launches India's 1st Nationwide Search for Healthcare Startups

Social Alpha and Tata Trusts – PATH Impact Lab, today, announced the launch of India’s first nationwide search – ‘Social Alpha Quest for Healthcare Innovations’. The program is designed to solve key healthcare challenges, eliminate disparities, and achieve health equity in India.

The program focuses on healthcare technology innovations in devices and diagnostics including point of care devices in the following areas:

a) Innovations in maternal and child health including and not restricted to, areas such as sepsis, maternal diabetes & hypertension

b) Innovations chronic and non-communicable diseases such as point-of-care detection of diabetes, neuropathies, retinopathies, cardio-vascular diseases, head & neck cancer, cervical cancer and other cancers

c) Innovations in detection and diagnosis of infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV, TB, chikungunya, HCV etc.

Commenting on the program launch, Manoj Kumar, Head of Innovation, Tata Trusts and CEO, Social Alpha, said, “Science and Technology innovations have the potential to create enormous new possibilities and opportunities for solving affordability, accessibility and quality challenges in the healthcare delivery. The Social Alpha Quest for Healthcare Innovations is a step towards supporting the innovative startups in their lab to market journey. Along with our partner PATH, we hope to search and support high impact, high quality yet affordable healthcare solutions and take them to the underserved communities across the world.”

Neeraj Jain, Country Director, PATH Impact Lab, said, "We are pleased to partner with Tata Trusts Social Alpha for 'Quest for Healthcare' to bridge significant gaps in adoption and scaling of medtech innovations which would positively impact public health in India and beyond. This program brings together complementary strengths of PATH and Social Alpha as well as our other partners THSTI, Philips and IIT Delhi in providing an optimal mix of support tools to medtech startups at the cusp on exponential growth"

The Social Alpha Quest for Healthcare Innovations program will primarily focus on adoption and scaling of innovative products in order to accelerate development, positively impact public health outcomes and achieve global product standards. This will be achieved through funding to conduct clinical validation studies along with intensive mentoring and support in business models, regulation, global technologies and market dynamics. Startups that have developed product prototypes and now seeking expertise and financial support for clinical testing and validation will benefit from this program.



The selected startups will be supported by Tata Trusts - PATH Impact Lab and their network of mentors for a period of up to 15 months and will receive the following offerings:

• Funding up to INR 25 lakhs for clinical validation




• Mentorship support in refining business model, navigating regulatory landscape, understanding national & global market dynamics




• Support in product design through access to Social Alpha and Tata Trusts - PATH Impact Lab’s product shop




• Access to PATH’s expertise in design and clinical validation and facilitate access to PHCs/hospitals.




• A 2-3-day Barrel for the founder(s) of selected startups intensively focused on business strategy and growth




• Facilitating engineering and technical support




• Additional grant up to INR 25 lakhs for Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) and achieving international product standards




• Opportunities for global exposure visits for advanced training, networking, research support etc.




• Opportunity for dilutive investments by Social Alpha and eligibility to receive support in raising the next round of funding post meeting eligibility and diligence requirements

Tata Trusts – PATH Impact Lab was launched in January 2018, a first in India to support and bring to market innovations for affordable and high quality public health solutions to benefit vulnerable populations with limited resources and provide comprehensive support to selected innovators through product design, clinical validation, commercialization and market development.

To apply, please log onto: www.socialalphachallenge.org. Last date to submit applications is August 23rd, 2018.