Top 15 cleantech start-ups addressing climate change and energy access awarded by Government of India

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New Delhi, February 12, 2020: Technologies for energy storage, smart metering, clean cooking, innovative EV solutions, battery technologies, energy monitoring systems and hydro turbine technologies are among the 15 winning start-ups announced and felicitated by government of India, BIRAC, Tata Trusts, TATA Power and Social Alpha at a felicitation ceremony and innovation showcase of the Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0 (SAEC 2.0), today. The winners were selected from more than 150 applicants across the country which were screened for their unique technology and business model, strong focus on affordability and accessibility and social, economic and environmental impact.

The selection for the winners of Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0 was made for two categories respectively - 'pre-pilot' and 'post-pilot', to address the needs of technologies and start-ups in different stages of product development. The pre-pilot category winners will be supported in their very early stage through handholding and mentorship for product development, including support in physical prototype development and testing. The post-pilot category start-ups are the ones that have crossed the proof of concept stage and have demonstrated a working prototype, and will be supported in the go-to-market execution.

The winners will be incubated by the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre (CEIIC). CEIIC, Social Alpha's deep-tech Energy Innovation Lab, which is the joint initiative of the Government of India and Tata Trusts, supported by Department of Biotechnology, BIRAC, Tata Power and Tata Power-Delhi Distribution Limited. CEIIC will support entrepreneurs by providing industry and field connect critical for product development .

Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary Department of Biotechnology & Chairperson BIRAC, said 'It's a great pleasure to see the innovative energy Start-ups coming forward and addressing important issues of climate change, energy access & efficiency and sustainable future. The incubation support at the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre (CEIIC) would play a catalytic role for lab-to-market facilitation to the winners of the Energy Challenge 2.0. Under Mission Innovation, CEIIC is a first of its kind International Incubation Centre jointly established by DBT/BIRAC, Tata Trusts & Tata Power reflecting strong PPP commitment for promoting new affordable solutions for clean energy. I congratulate the winners and wish them good luck in their journey to develop solutions in tackling global energy crisis for a low carbon, energy efficient and sustainable future.

Praveer Sinha, CEO and Managing Director, TATA Power, said, 'Technological innovation in the cleanenergy space is not a choice anymore, but a necessity. This is the only way to deliver sustainable and affordable energy for all. We have joined hands with Social Alpha for the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre that will help us achieve this goal. Tata Power is deeply committed in promoting and supporting the ecosystem to develop clean and smart energy solutions through the adoption of technological innovations. I congratulate the winners of Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0 and wish them the best in their journey. Tata Power is extending support to the start-ups in terms of technical mentorship and commercial opportunities, wherever possible."

Manoj Kumar, Founder and CEO, Social Alpha and Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tata Trusts, says, 'Social Alpha Energy Challenge is a major movement towards accelerating cleantech innovations for a low carbon, energy efficient and sustainable future. The winners have demonstrated impactful technology solutions that have the potential to address issues of energy poverty, energy access and climate change. We already have 8 cleantech companies in our portfolio that have demonstrated the potential to collectively reduce more than 90 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year by 2030. We are really looking forward to this year's winning innovations and believe that they will further strengthen India's leadership in global shift towards clean and sustainable energy.'

The winners will receive customised lab-to-market incubation support at CEIIC, which includes access to world-class lab infrastructure and test beds, technical advisory, R&D support for product design and manufacturing, piloting opportunities with industry leaders, access to grant funding, hands-on operational support, business planning, go-to-market strategic advisory, international exposure and collaboration opportunities, opportunity to access seed support from Social Alpha, and a connect with a larger investor and donor network, access to shared office space with amenities and shared support services.

List of top 15 winners under pre-pilot and post-pilot categories:

Elicius Energy : A fuel cell energy storage technology that not only offers clean power but also provides an increase in power density as compared to the current market standard and lower initial purchase costs.
Grassroots Energy: Developed a low-cost energy efficient technology that can purify and compress biogas in a cost effective manner. This will address diverse market segments currently using fossil fuels to switch to low-cost bio-CNG without any lowering of performance
Temperate Technologies: Developed a new proprietary energy-efficient air conditioning and cold storage technology which leads to up to 50% reduction in the overall energy consumption
Offgrid Energy Labs: Developed a ZincGel® battery that can outperform current lead acid batteries in terms of power density, battery-life and cost thereby significantly reducing the number of batteries
Gtarang Energy Solutions: Developed efficient biomass based furnace solutions that can save huge amounts of fuel for small sector enterprise clusters such as jaggery making, rice mills, dairy, etc.
Stallion Vortex – is a small scale hydropower solution, which is a run-of-the-river type hydro power plant, which requires low head and very less civil structure, reducing the installation and operation cost by a great extent
Feyman Innovations: A light-weight and energy efficient robotic cleaning solution that can clean solar panels with zero water usage and negligible/minimal stress on the panels.
Himalayan Rocket Stove: Highly energy efficient, affordable and clean heating and cooking system suited to Himalayan conditions that can reduce emissions/air pollution by a massive 90% or more caused from firewood thereby positively impacting health and environmental outcomes of the region
Krishna Arya Tech Corp: Developed 'Annapoorna cookstove', a zero-emission, low-cost, and energy efficient cooking solution that can reduce the emissions cause due to biomass based cooking
Tan90: Portable, solar-powered cold storage system powered by thermal battery that can reduce wastage of farm produce and increase farmer incomes
Maclec: Developed best of its kind hydro-kinetic turbine technology that enables to harness hydro power from water streams like rivers, hilly streams, even running urban waste water from canals and sewages without the need to create bigger civil structures.
Doorastha Analytics: Developed solar powered grid monitoring system that can do a full performance monitoring of the power network within the micro-grid and generate live data that can help improve its performance
Meladath Auto: An innovative retrofit table conversion kit that can replace the front wheel of the scooter and can be converted into an electric scooter without any modifications.
NRG Village: An IoT-based grid-connected microgrid operating platform, which allows consumers to control their energy use, thereby enabling incentivising of consumers, utilities, prosumers, and finance companies of decentralised renewable solutions.
SwitchDin: A virtual power plant and micro-grid platform which integrates with most solar and battery systems in the market to enable site energy management as well as coordination across micro-grids or virtual power plants.


About BIRAC

BIRAC is a not-for-profit Section 8, Government of India enterprise mandated to catalyse biotech innovation ecosystem growth in the country. It supports Biotech Startups, Entrepreneurs and SMEs across Biotechnology sector. BIRAC has a strong network of national & international strategic partners that includes Academia, Industry, Corporate, Philanthropic organization, Central and State Government bodies. There are 2500+ Biotech start-ups, SMEs in the country along with a large pipeline of budding entrepreneurs in the ecosystem who get facilitated through BIRAC's capital infusement of INR 2000+ Cr, Incubation Centre network and access to technical, IP, Legal and Business mentorship access. Angel and VC funding together with strategic partners and global ecosystem connect, all add value to country's innovation ecosystem. These efforts have yielded innovators to create a pool of intellectual wealth (175+ IP) and launch of 125+ product and technologies. BIRAC also contributes to 'Make in India', 'Startup India' and 'Swachh Bharat' programs, leads national missions including National Biopharma Mission, and partners for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust and USAID programmes.


About Social Alpha

Social Alpha promotes innovations and entrepreneurship with a mission to create large scale social, economic and environmental impact. Social Alpha nurtures start-ups through their lab to market journey, helping them create high quality, commercially viable, accessible and affordable solutions. Foundation for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (FISE) forms the core of the Social Alpha architecture, and operates through a nationwide network of technology and business incubation infrastructure sponsored and enabled by Tata Trusts, Government of India and several academic, philanthropic and corporate partnerships. Social Alpha is focused on catalysing entrepreneurship for impact and provides critical technology and business incubation support to the mission driven start-ups.


About Tata Trusts

Since inception in 1892, Tata Trusts, India's oldest philanthropic organisation, has played a pioneering role in bringing about an enduring difference in the lives of the communities it serves. Guided by the principles and the vision of proactive philanthropy of the Founder, Jamsetji Tata, the Trusts' purpose is to catalyse development in the areas of health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, livelihood, digital transformation, migration and urban habitat, social justice and inclusion, environment and energy, skill development, sports, and arts and culture. The Trusts' programmes, achieved through direct implementation, partnerships and grant making, are marked by innovations, relevant to the country.

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