Startup Oasis picks four more social ventures for funding

After tying up Rs 1.7 crore for six social impact startups in September last year, the Pink City-based incubator Startup Oasis has closed funding for another four ventures taking total funding to Rs 2.6 crore under the Innovative Ventures and Technologies for Development (INVENT) programme.

The UK government's department of international development (DFID) along with technology development board (TDB) had launched the INVENT programme in 2016 to support and fund social impact startups from the eight low income states of India. While the lead incubator for the initiative is Chennai-based Villgro, Startup Oasis is implementing it predominantly for the startups operating in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Contree, Urdhvam, Medcords and Free Spirits Green Labs are the social ventures selected this time for the funding. Jaipur-based Contree facilitates a technology platform for city-based volunteering around social activities. Pune's Urdhvam has a technology solution for water harvesting and management while Kota-based Medcords provides ICT-based solution for health records digitization. Free Spirits Green Labs is an (Internet of Things) IoT solution that enables management of clean energy devices like pumps and solar panels in rural areas

In order to enable more social startups to get funding under INVENT initiative, Startup Oasis in collaboration with Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), Ahmedabad launched first social accelerator programme in November 2017, which received 126 applications.

"Nine shortlisted social startups are now undergoing a two-and-half-month intense accelerator programme with the final demo-day pending on February 10. The shortlisted start-ups are Shefcoz, Go-On-India, Handscart, Dignity and Design, Charkhaa, MunshiG, Track Your Metrics, Piltover Technologies and Tortoise Learning. It is expected that at least four out of these startups will get an investment of Rs 25 lakh each," said Chintan Bakshi, CEO Startup Oasis

In order to enable more social startups to get funding under INVENT initiative, Startup Oasis in collaboration with Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), Ahmedabad launched first social accelerator programme in November 2017, which received 126 applications.

"Nine shortlisted social startups are now undergoing a two-and-half-month intense accelerator programme with the final demo-day pending on February 10. The shortlisted start-ups are Shefcoz, Go-On-India, Handscart, Dignity and Design, Charkhaa, MunshiG, Track Your Metrics, Piltover Technologies and Tortoise Learning. It is expected that at least four out of these startups will get an investment of Rs 25 lakh each," said Chintan Bakshi, CEO Startup Oasis