6th December 2019: Villgro, India’s oldest and foremost social enterprise incubator, today announced its 2019 investees for iPitch. This year, iPitch has facilitated funding of over Rs 4 crore for innovative start-ups across the Agribusiness, Health, and Renewable Energy domains. Villgro India was the lead investor for start-ups in the health sector. It focused on tech-backed assistive technologies that can provide freedom to individuals with disabilities. BeAble Health, a manufacturer of rehabilitation and medical devices received INR 25,00,000. Flexmotiv Technologies, which creates anti-slip, all-terrain crutches, received INR 25,00,000 as well.
Villgro, in partnership with Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF), funded 4 start-ups dedicated to the conservation and management of water in agriculture. Kritsnam Technologies is building IoT solutions – which is a data driven water management solution, manage water resources – lakes, rivers, canals and reservoirs. The start-up has received INR 50,00,000. Oscillo Machines is working to build farm equipment for challenges that have not been solved yet. Their first product is an electric paddy seedling transplanter for use in traditional small fields. It is designed for use by women, who dominate the workforce in transplanting. It has bagged INR 30,00,000 from HUF and Villgro.
Cultyvate integrates IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Remote Sensing and Machine Learning to create smart irrigation services to improve crop yield. The start-up has received INR 50,00,000. Urdhvam has been awarded INR 30,00,000 from Villgro and HUF for its innovative ‘BoreCharger – a robotic drill that helps rejuvenate dried borewells. Further, Villgro USA is actively considering an additional two investments, which are expected to close in the near future.
In a noteworthy development, existing Villgro incubatee – Lal10, which offers mobile handheld CRMs, helping thousands of artisans to connect with global inventors – has received USD 100,000 from Upaya Social Ventures & Beyond Capital Fund. Villgro has announced investment in Ameliorate Biotech for INR 65 Lakhs, along with SINE, IIT Bombay.
Speaking on the funding, Paul Basil, Founder and CEO, Villgro, said, “The amount of funding offered to these disruptive early stage start-ups through iPitch is truly a cause for celebration. We need more such start-ups that solve real problems and hold the potential to truly revolutionize the start-up landscape of the country. On our part, we will continue to empower such paradigm-shifting start-ups with funding, mentoring, go-to-market strategies and much more in order to steer them towards resounding success.”
As always, the iPitch investees were announced at Villgro’s annual Unconvention conference – one of India’s largest gatherings of leading social entrepreneurs, CSR professionals, investors, policymakers, and academia, to discuss the present and future of the India social sector. The investments will truly accelerate the growth of the winning start-ups, giving a fillip to India’s fast-growing social sector.
