By Diana Fernandes
Giving a fillip to the state’s goal of becoming a startup hub, 14 start ups mentored at the Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship (FiiRE), Don Bosco College, Fatorda, are selected under the Nidhi Prayas and Nidhi EIR programs of the Department of Science and Technology, new Delhi.
Of the 14 start-ups, five were selected for the Nidhi Prayas and nine under Nidhi EIR.
The startups were made to present their pitches at the Demp Day held at FiiRE after a 12 month process of selection, mentoring and development.
D.S.T director and scientist, Dr. Naveen Vasishta, FiiRE, director Fr. Kinley D’Cruz, FiiRE CEO D. S. Prashant and mentor for the two programs, director of Ideaz Unlimited, Kishore Shah were also part of the event.
Speaking about the 14 startups, Shah, said that, they come up with simple ideas based on engineering excellence. “The strength of the EIR startups is that they are based on Gandhian engineering for social issues and 70 percent of them have already got commercial success,” said Shah.
On the five startups selected under Nidhi Prayas, Shah said he saw unicorn potential and their challenges are in making the product affordable and in developing user based iterations.
The NIDHI- Promoting and Accelerating Young and ASpiring innovators and startups ( Prayas) programme offers idea-stage entrepreneurs with a physical product prototyping support with grant in aid of up to Rs. 10 lakh. It also helps innovators with the physical infrastructure, technical guidance and business mentorship.
In all 98 applications were received for Nidhi Prayas. Of the five start-ups selected, three have already been commercialised and two are in the R&D stage, four have filed for IP and have jointly raised Rs 4.5 crore in external funds.
Dharakha Ecosolutions Pvt. Ltd. with its co-founders Arpit Dhupar and Anand Bodh have developed a process to convert the crop stubble waste into useful biodegradable packaging material utilising the power of biotechnology. Their clients include Dabur Ltd, Barosi and Kraft packaging.
Intellilogs Consulting LLP, with Dr. Jonathan Joshi as the CEO developed the Paprtrack smart IoT system used to track and secure paper documents. The system incorporates a smart paper, file or folder designed to facilitate the tracking and protection of a physical paper document. It received its first paid piloting worth Rs. 4 lakh with Global Multispecialty Hospital, Mumbai.
Founder of Diagopreutic Pvt. Ltd., Dr. Roshan Ratnakar has developed therapeutic and diagnostic avenues for bacterial MRSA infection and has received validation from an NABL accredited lab for visual color-based detection and antibiotic susceptibility of common urinary tract infection causing bacteria within six hours instead of the current 48- 72 hour detection.
Vipin Mathew and Shine Sreedhar of Srishti Robotics Technologies Pvt Ltd developed the V-Fill cloud based water management and monitoring system that automates water tanks to maintain optimal levels and prevent overflowing. It replaces traditional controllers with advanced non-hydrostatic sensor technology and has clients including Starbucks Kochi, Darragh Builders and Infopark Hostel.
Under the NIDHI- Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR), recipients are provided grants of up to Rs 30,000 per month for idea development. In all there were 63 applications for Nidhi EIR. Of the nine startups selected, five start-ups are incorporated, four have applied for IP and have raised external funds of Rs 29.05 lakh.
Aju Nair’s start-up Artsuite Pvt. Ltd. developed a tool to recognise value creation in web3 communities, while Alen Anil’s Aptinnov Labs Pvt. Ltd developed a tender coconut punch with splitter to make the process of punching and cutting tender coconuts easier and safer. Anand Lobo’s Lobo Projects LLP designed a Piezoelectric microphone and phantom- powered preamplifier for audio recording.
Dr. Amina Srivastava has proposed and developed a solution to the use of natural or microbial pigments produced by bacteria and fungi as an alternative to synthetic dyes making it non-toxic, easy to cultivate and not dependent on seasonal availability.
Ayush Panara’s start-up Beta Murungai Pvt. Ltd. developed a cost-effective food fortification technique for the Indian population and has Akshar Sp. Zoo (Poland), Nutriza Inc (Canada) and Future You (UK) as clients.
Balachandran Elayath worked on developing a drag reduction system in heavy vehicles to improve their efficiency and overall performance, Jashwanth Reddy’s tool aids organisations and hiring managers to assess candidates for job applications by enhancing the ‘quality of hire’ and ‘time to hire’ metrics, both vital indicators in recruitment, he has also worked with four clients on a trial basis for the last four months, evaluated profiles for ten roles and reached out to over 150 candidates.
Prashant Missal’s startup Missal Edutech Pvt. Ltd developed an edutech startup to develop positive habits such as reading, writing, public speaking, mindfulness habits and more for students above five years. Siddhant Panjikar has designed and fabricated equipment to recycle 3D printing material where around 20 percent of raw material is wasted.
“In 2014, the impetus was put on startup and we wanted to bridge the gap that existed. NIDHI EIR and PRAYAS came about through this endeavour. This was an option to help bring about entrepreneurs in house and to help ease the pressures from parents to get a job. The government is giving funding for ideas and innovation that bring about changes in the life of the society. In Goa too we need to have a USP that would help make a difference,” said Vasishta while speaking at the inaugural function.