Meet the 24 winning startups of Maharashtra Startup Week 2020

Since its inception in 2018, the Maharashtra Startup Week has grown to be a major platform for entrepreneurial talent in the country to work with the government and address key challenges across education and skilling, agriculture, healthcare, sustainability, smart infrastructure and mobility and governance.

The work orders awarded by Maharashtra Government have enabled the startups to pilot the solutions with relevant government departments, and thereby scale their solutions and showcase impact. Over the years, the annual event has also put the spotlight on innovative startups and provided an opportunity for various stakeholders of the startup ecosystem to connect and network with each other.

The Maharashtra Startup Week 2020, organised by Maharashtra State Innovation Society, which culminated in the first week of August, saw 24 startups across sectors being chosen as winners. These startups will receive work orders of up to Rs 15 lakh from the Maharashtra State Innovation Society to pilot their solutions within different state departments. Moreover, the startups will also receive access to government machinery and mentoring from its institutional partners for a period of up to 12 months to deploy their solutions on the ground. More than 1600 have startups applied for this program.

Here’s a look at the 24 winning startups of Maharashtra Startup Week 2020 and their innovative solutions across sectors.

Education & Skilling

1. Trestle Labs: The startup is working towards empowering the visually-challenged and making education and employment inclusive. Its flagship solution, KIBO, is an intelligent, personalised reading-learning companion for the visually-impaired and learning-disabled that helps them to read any printed, handwritten or digital content in real-time through an immersive reading-learning experience.

2. Lal10: A technology-enabled online platform, Lal10 enables Indian artisans to sell their products in international markets and secure a sustainable livelihood. The company has partnered with global retailers who buy products from these sellers. The startup also provides artisans with the required skills and knowledge of contemporary designs and helps them manage inventory and supply chain for better delivery and transaction efficiency.

3. Trascender Services: The startup is committed to bringing in transformation in healthcare and education. It has recently embarked on a journey to create a skilled workforce for the healthcare Industry through its paramedic centers.

Governance

4. PVKL Tech Services: Provakil is a data automation and process automation solution for legal teams to improve the justice system by making government bodies more court compliant. Today, Provakil helps manage millions of cases, workflows for government bodies, large companies, law firms and lawyers.

5. Autolligent Technologies: Autolligent is revolutionizing field service management using Artificial Intelligence and BlockChain technologies for various government departments. The innovative process assists in increasing productivity and automates the manual processes.

6. Valectus: Valectus is a comprehensive data analytics platform built to help businesses of any size make the most of their spatial or location-based geospatial data. The startup not only collects, processes and analyses geospatial information but also helps governments and businesses build their own geospatial applications and make smart spatial data driven decisions.

Agriculture

7. Brainwired: An agritech startup, Brainwired was started with a vision to make livestock farming easier and more profitable by leveraging technology to make data-driven decisions. Brainwired is developing a Livestock Health Monitoring and Tracking System named WeSTOCK for Indian farmers to help them earn more income by reducing their present expenses.

8. Distinct Horizon: Distinct Horizon develops breakthrough technologies to increase the profits of marginalised farmers across the developing world and increase food production, while protecting the environment from further degradation. It has developed an effective tool for doubling farming incomes while reducing chemicals and environmental damage. The startup says that with this tool, entrepreneurs break even within one year while bringing significant improvements to crop health and resistance.

9. Sense It Out Intelligent Solutions: The AgriTech startup is committed to increase the yield by keeping the solution crop centric with the help of agricultural experts and insight through data analytics. Its flagship product, SICCA (Sensor-based Intelligent Crop Centric Automation), is a low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) device that makes irrigation management smarter, reliable and affordable.

Healthcare

10. Incredible Devices: Incredible Devices is a medical devices startup with a mission to make healthcare safe, affordable and accessible for all. The startup has developed Catheter Reprocessing System (CRS) -an automatic computer guided catheter cleaning machine with inbuilt self-testing and calibration which ensures the best cleaning of catheter. CRS’ inbuilt computer stringently monitors every process and effectively cleans catheters with precision and accuracy - a feat that is challenging with conventional methods.

11. Jeevtronics: Jeevtronics is a social and technology venture. The startup has developed a dual powered bi-phasic defibrillator that can work in places without electricity. The defibrillator will aid in reducing the country’s mortality rate due to sudden cardiac arrest.

12. Bempu Health Healthcare: BEMPU Health-a social enterprise based in India seeking to radically reduce neonatal mortality through lifesaving medical innovations and technologies. Their first product, the BEMPU TempWatch, prevents newborn deaths through the early detection of hypothermia and infections. The BEMPU TempWatch was among TIME Magazine’s Top 25 Innovations of 2017 and has helped 18,000+ babies around the world.

Smart infra & mobility

13. Efficienergi: Efficienergi offers vendor-neutral, multi-disciplinary expertise to identify and solve the root causes affecting the performance of energy and power networks. Their expertise and tech applications aid in improving reliability and efficiencies of commercial electrical networks, while delivering safety and compliance.

14. Feronex Smart Logistics: Feronex creates flexible warehousing solutions on its Warehousing-as-a-Service platform. It provides the flexibility to expand and reduce capabilities to accommodate changing demands within the supply chain. The startup comes with the agility to handle sharply increased and decreased needs in production, warehousing, and shipping, while controlling costs, efficiency, visibility, and customer experience.

15. Tilt Technology (Feynman Pvt. Ltd.) : Tilt is a shared mobility solution designed exclusively for Indian ecosystems. A B2B2C company, their pool of shared bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters are in corporate campuses, colleges, townships, resorts and parks across India.

Sustainability

16. Fluid Robotics: Fluid Robotics is a startup providing products and services that enable better management of water and wastewater infrastructure. Through the use of Robotics and Information Technology, the company is helping cities take control of water pollution caused due to untreated wastewater entering lakes, rivers and groundwater.

17. Taraltec Solutions: Taraltec is working to provide safe water to the under-privileged in under-served areas. Its flagship product, Taraltec® Reactor, carries out water disinfection by killing microbes in water from bore well hand-pumps and motorised water lines, thus eliminating water borne diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid.

18. Recube Circular Solutions:The startup is working towards reducing single-use plastics by introducing a deposit system for its products. One of its key offerings, Cupable, is a brand that designs, manufactures and recycles drinkware that is good for the planet. It builds technology enabled systems that produce reusable products that are trackable and can be linked back to their reusable centres to be washed and reused. The startup aims to create a sustainable and circular economy for the future

19. Earthy Zest Sustainability: Earthy zest is a platform for upcycled eco - friendly products. It strives to contribute positively towards the country’s waste management and also work towards reducing carbon emissions through upcycling. The startup offers high quality upcycled products like bags and wallets made from waste fabric and water-proof materials and thereby offer a hassle-free and eco-friendly substitute to mainstream products.

20. Urban Air Labs: Urban Air Labs aims to solve air problems associated with urbanisation by combining three critical elements - technology, design and nature. The startup leverages technology to drive and innovate products and applications primarily focusing on urban-lifestyle needs. In addition to their natural plant-based air purifier, the startup has built a unique portfolio of innovative products to tackle and improve air quality challenges linked with urban lifestyle.

21. MinionLabs Sustainability: MinionLabs helps businesses to reduce their electricity costs and improve their productivity by providing real-time device level electricity consumption insights using a smart energy device delivered through its Analytical platform. Its energy auditing device, Minion, is a plug and play solution that is compatible across all electricity standards world over. It is also compatible with all kinds of communication networks such as Wi-Fi, 3G/4G, where users can select the communication network at their convenience.

Miscellaneous

22. Navana Tech India: Navana Tech is a design and technology startup focused on removing the barriers that prevent users with poor levels of literacy from accessing and using smartphone services that can improve their quality of life. It is building text-free, image-based and voice assisted technology for this demographic to use smartphones with independence and confidence.

23. Arthashastra Fintech: Arthashastra uses new-age technologies to bridge the credit divide that exists in India. Their product, ePayLater, is a 'Buy Now Pay Later' checkout lending platform that provides credit at the point of sale.

24. Karza Technologies: Karza Technologies is building one of the most comprehensive digital due diligence platforms to enable the screening of counter parties through 700+ credible publicly available information sources through a singular gateway. Karza's offerings assist financial institutions throughout their customer journey, right from on-boarding, risk assessment, underwriting and due diligence, monitoring and recoveries.

Startups who missed out on this opportunity can apply for the next edition of Maharashtra Startup Week. More details can be found on www.msins.in or www.twitter.com/MSInSociety