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AFI Newsletter
This is the September 2024 edition of the Action for India Newsletter! We're excited to bring you this publication dedicated to keeping you informed, inspired, and connected with the Action for India community.
DeHaat has scooped up $115 million in what appears to be the largest funding round for an agritech startup in India.
Two mega successes for social entrepreneurs in our network. First there was the news featuring Shashank Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, DeHaat and AFI’s Silicon Valley Challenge (SVC) Fellow in 2016: Then, the very next day, we received an update from Akanksha Hazari, Founder & CEO, LoveLocal (previously m.paani) and AFI’s SVC Fellow in 2014:
LoveLocal Raises $18m in one of the largest rounds ever raised by a Solo Woman Tech Founder in India
MUMBAI, India, Oct. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LoveLocal, India's leading hyper-local e-commerce platform empowering local retailers, has raised $18m or INR 143 crores, in a Pre-Series B investment round that features some of the most prominent investors and founders globally. The round, which was oversubscribed, is led by Vulcan Capital, and also includes participation from Klarna Founder & CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski's Flat Capital, Alumni Ventures Group and Commerce Ventures, Angel investors Nami Zarringhalam, Co-founder of Truecaller, Sriram Krishnan, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Anna Lambert, Director of Product Acceleration at Shopify, Sarah Jones Simmer, CEO of Found & ex-COO of Bumble, Arpan Sheth, Senior Partner at Bain & Company, and others.
AFI-SVC Trek Fellow, Sandith Thandasherry, launches his
first book
AFI’s partner organisation and SVC Trek 2017 Fellow, Mr. Sandith Thandasherry, CEO, NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats, recently launched the first edition of his book "Solar-Electric Boat - Plan, Build and Benefit". The book targets the marine transport system’s decision makers, advisors and team, who need to understand the fundamentals of solar-electric boats.
Organisation building assistive tech solutions wins the ‘Most Impactful Assistive Technology (AT) Start-Up'
Trestle Labs, an ex-AFI fellow organisation providing solutions for the visually impaired through assistive technology and learning has just won ‘Most Impactful Assistive Technology (AT) Start-up' by AssisTech Foundation Awards. The organisation has been receiving mentorship from Lavni Ventures for over a year and is in talks for investment currently.
AFI Fellow, Ikure gets recognised by World Economic Forum (WEF) in Top 50 COVID-19 Last Mile Responders
iKure, founded by Mr. Sujay Santra - an AFI-SVC Fellow 2015, is aiding primary healthcare and wellness to communities in India through innovative technology, and has been recognised by World Economic Forum among the Top 50 COVID-19 Last Mile Responders as part of the COVID Response Alliance For Social Entrepreneurs. iKure aims to provide holistic healthcare services for rural residents using technological intervention and so far, the organization has reached 12 million people in eight states across India, treating over 2.5 million patients.
Past AFI-SVC Fellows, Nemocare Wellness & AgNext, among the 16 Indian Startups Selected for Google's Accelerator Program
Nemocare Wellness working (healthcare) and AGNEXT (agriculture) have been selected for this years' Google Startups Accelerator Program. Nemocare (AFI-SVC Fellow, 2018) is creating innovative solutions to end all preventable neonatal and maternal deaths in the developing world by building affordable, accurate, continuous smart monitoring wearables. AgNext (Top 10 among SVC Fellow, 2016) is working towards revolutionising AI-based rapid food quality assessments for sustainable agriculture by building trust, speed and transparency in food transactions across the agriculture supply chain.
AFI Fellow, Newndra Innovations Private Wins National Intellectual Property Awards for Year 2020
Mr. Ganesh Ram Jangir, AFI fellow & founder of Newndra Innovations Pvt. Ltd. has been selected as the winner of National Intellectual Property Awards for the Year 2020 in the category 'Top Start-up for IT and commercialisation'. Due to the pandemic, the ceremony will be held online & the award will be given by Hon'ble Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal.
AFI Fellow, Sohum Innovation Labs won a grant of ₹2,500,000 from Prosus SICA
Three Indian startups are working to scale up assistive tech for differently-abled backed by new funding received as part of the inaugural Prosus Social Impact Challenge for Accessibility (Prosus SICA). Sohum won for its "highly accessible device” that has been designed to detect hearing impairment amongst infants and small children.
AFI Fellow, Doctors For You, making oxygen available at the Peak of COVID-19
The Hero Group, in collaboration with an NGO called Doctors for You, founded by AFI fellow, have made 100 oxygen concentrators available along with medicines and doctors in Haryana to help fight the pandemic.
AFI WISEpreneur Neha Kirpal - Enhance Outreach through Industry Partnerships
AFI's WISEpreneur Neha Kirpal, Co-Founder of the mental health platform Innerhour, stressed upon enhancing the outreach by partnering with other organizations during her interaction with the investors/advisors in the UK Chapter Meeting. Mr. Sudhir Subbaraman, CGI, appreciated the initiative and signed up CGI (India+APAC region) with InnerHour, providing mental health services for their 15K+ employees in the region.
GUVI makes it into the Guinness World Records For it's 'AI-for-India 1.0' initiative
AFI's partner organisation GUVI, received the Guinness World Records for it's 'AI-for-India 1.0' initiative that had the most number of users to take computer programming lessons in 24 hours. GUVI is an online platform to learn computer programming and coding in India, which offers free and paid classes in multiple languages.
Digital Green receives USD 2.7B grant from MacKenzie Scott
Digital Green, a partner organisation of AFI is among the 14 organisations based in India out of the 286 global organisations that have collectively received USD 2.7B grant from Mac Kenzie Scott. The organisation helps uplift the conditions of farmers in India by integrating technology and grassroots-level partnerships.
AFI Fellow, Bikrant Tiwary - Action For India Award gave wings to his Green Initiative
Mr Bikrant Tiwary, CEO, Grow-Trees.com, during an interview with the Weather Channel, highlighted how winning the Action For India Award gave impetus to his green initiative globally. The initiative targets carbon reduction, restoring forests, improving wildlife habitats, upgrading water catchment areas, and more
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