Mumbai, 10th April, 2024: The global impacts of climate change are already being felt across the ecosystem, particularly in agriculture. Innovation and collaboration are the most fundamental pillars for us to develop long-term, viable solutions for the future climate & sustainability concerns. With this point of view, the Improving Lives Foundation along with, Bioriidl, riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar launched the Climate Tech & Sustainability Acceleration Program funded by OmniActive Health Technologies.

This unique residential program kicked off with 20 visionary climate entrepreneurs selected from over 150 applications, with the idea to help these solutions scale and tackle challenges particularly focused on agriculture and innovation in the material domain. The solutions panned domains of space technology, materials, clean energy, agriculture technology, and horticulture. The program was one of the most diverse programs ever, with solutions from the length and breadth of India - from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from the most rural districts to the financial capital, showcasing the true vision of Viksit Bharat.
Chaitanya Desai, COO & India Head, OmniActive Health Technologies stated, "This program reaffirms OmniActive's commitment to fostering innovation, and gives corporates like ours an opportunity to support & leverage the creativity of these young startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, paving the way for real-world implementation of groundbreaking solutions.”

Recognizing the potential of these startups from this cohort to make a global impact, the top 6 startups were awarded grants to commercialize their innovations at scale. These grants were particularly focused on accelerating the growth of the innovations identified and nurtured during this program. These included:

Kashmir based Farooqi Feeds is transforming the animal feed industry by recycling agricultural wastes, aiming to cut 90% of imported feed, boosting farmer savings and making them more independent to boost the domestic Kashmir business ecosystem.

Gurgaon based CI Metrics leverages satellite imagery & AI to predict crop growth with over 90% accuracy + predict climate indices with weather & man-made events, solving critical need for risks in agri, logistics, insurance and defense.

Lucknow based Lenz Energy Industry Pvt Ltd’s fuel-less electric generator technology Faraday Generator provides 90% cheaper than grid and 50% cheaper than solar electricity & produces 6 times more power than plants to complete the energy requirement of all commercial industries.

Bangalore based Ekosight Technologies Pvt Ltd is revolutionizing farming with a unique precision soil testing offering that helps farmers optimize their soil by providing accurate results and crop based recommendation, resulting in cost-saving by 20% and yield increase by 15%.

Bangalore based EasyKrishi Pvt Ltd is revolutionizing the use of waste by empowering self help groups to create agarbattis from waste including flower waste and other agricultural waste. - Mumbai based Cocoplast is developing alternatives for hard plastic with various applications from coconut waste.

Bhavna Pandya, Head, Bioriidl & Innovation Catalyst, riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar, emphasized the importance of supporting startups stating, “The Climate Tech & Sustainability Acceleration Program stands as a testament to the collective dedication towards addressing the challenges posed by climate change. By nurturing and supporting the next generation of climate entrepreneurs, we are enabling them to build a more sustainable future for generations to come.”

Throughout the program, the startups benefitted from over 15 curated workshops by industry experts covering domains including Supply Chain Management, Digital Marketing, Agricultural Market Insights, Customer Discovery, Grant Writing, IP & many several more. In addition, the program also facilitated industry connections, one-to-one mentorships, dedicated office hours, networking events to facilitate interaction with HNIs, and demo day with sector specific investors.

To this, Rushva Parihar, Head, Improving Lives Foundation added, “We are proud to be able to foster innovation. The biggest challenge that startups face is not being able to move from the idea to scale stage by commercializing their products or offerings. Through this unique program, we hope that we have been able to give them the support and funding to help scale these ground breaking solutions in the sustainability domain. We are committed to continuing our support to all the startups and helping them as needed in their journey.”

About Improving Lives Foundation:
The Improving Lives Foundation is a not for profit that is dedicated to fostering positive change in the lives of underserved communities.

About OmniActive Health Technologies:
Established in 2005, OmniActive Health Technologies seeks to improve lives through innovative science and natural health solutions.

About Bioriidl:
Bioriidl is India's first DIY Biolab and a Biotechnology incubator at riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar which offers a space for researchers and bio-entrepreneurs to do their R&D and build products & projects in the Life Sciences domain. Support through infrastructure, BIRAC Seed Fund, mentoring & more is provided to the startups. In the past 5 years, over 51 startups have been supported, 30 research projects have been worked upon, 2 CSR Programs have been conducted while 3 startup exits have been recorded. Bioriidl has specialized facilities like Molecular Biology Lab, Cell Culture Lab, Fermentation Lab, Analytical Lab & Common Instrument Lab to access. Students, academicians, researchers, corporates & entrepreneurs have access to the global bio-community through the Darwin conference.

About riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar:
riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar supports the creation and incubation of early-stage companies from ideation to commercialization by providing them with resources, labs, facilitating government grants, investor connections, funding and mentorship. Business incubators of riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar are supported by the Department of Science & Technology; BIRAC, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and Maharashtra State Innovation Society, Government of Maharashtra. It has incubated over 220 startups and facilitated in creating 1000+ jobs and internship opportunities while the total revenue generated by the startups is over INR 400 Cr. riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar has been bestowed with the National Award for the year 2020 in the Emerging Technology Business Incubator category by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.