Covid 19 Cohort
  • Share
  • Tweet

    • Covid 19 Cohort

    Lemon Ideas is working on many verticals. Lemon School and Innopreneurs are some key ventures of it. As part of the compliance for the project undertaken by Lemon Ideas on ‘Identification and Mentoring of select start-ups for Developing innovative, smart and local solutions for COVID’ supported by The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). It is Germany’s leading provider of international cooperation services. As a federal enterprise, it supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. An SFF has been granted by the Federal German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for smart and local solutions for the production of products for COVID 19. The goal of the proposed intervention is ‘to identify, support, and handhold innovations that promote smart and local solutions in the production of equipment required for COVID-19.’

    As an impactful response to COVID-19, there is a need to scale up and pilot innovative measures for battling COVID-19 pandemic over a shorter term. All this requires innovative ideas and mindset, agility, and innovative ability which can be achieved by harnessing potential startups and entrepreneurs in the country. The broader objective would be to enable people’s lives in the new normal emerging in post COVID era. These solutions would help society and benefit people in their day to day life. Though the proposed duration of the project is 11+ months the Lemon team would accelerate the commercialization of innovation for the larger benefit and bring out the desired outcome in 6 months.

    The expected outcome of this project would be commercialization support for selected startups that have very promising potential for scale and impact for people to address challenges because of COVID-19 impact. The outcome would be as per milestones of identifying the pipeline and selecting the most suitable ideas innovations for mentoring, thus leading to commercialization and scaling for 2-3 startups. Here are step-by-step proceedings

    1. Identification of 15 startups for Cohort
    2. Organized 3 training-mentoring session
    3. Development of criterion and submitted to GIZ
    4. 1 startup has to choose and recommendation for that to GIZ
    5. Carbon Hub Pvt. Ltd. got support from GIZ
    6. Further case studies of different startups are still going on

    The COVID 19 Cohort consists of 15 Startups. These 15 startups are working towards solutions under the following fronts

    • Solutions to sanitize objects (20%)
    • Solutions to sanitize people (20%)
    • Solutions to make better masks (13%)
    • Solutions to bring in anti-Viral coatings and Fabrics (13%)
    • Misc. solutions (34%)

    to decontaminate the air in closed public spaces brings in more secured travel options etc. The geographic diversity of this Cohort is divided into something like given Maharashtra is for 40% followed by Gujrat, Karnataka and Delhi, each for 13%. Rest Orrisa, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan stand for 7% each. Some of the startups of 15 are totally worth to share.

    • Carbon Hubs Pvt. Ltd. They are making air purifiers that can capture microorganisms including COVID 19 virus thus making the air safer to breathe. It has a good application in closed public places like offices, hospitals, malls, etc.
    • Upcyclabs Creators Pvt. Ltd. The idea is to sanitize your hands compulsorily whenever you touch the doorknob to open the door
    • Trip Mungo. With COVID 19 public travel on holidays has become very restricted. They are providing a caravan-based solution of enjoying travel thus reducing the chances of infection and also enjoying a new perspective of travel on wheels.
    • Medicfibers Pvt. Ltd. This team has developed a solution which when coated on fabric makes it microbe-proof for 6 months. This is a very good solution for Hotels, Hospitals, etc. where the fabrics are reused by different people.
    • Robosan Solutions LLP. They have developed UVC based sanitization box adorned by a 4500 years old Dhokra inspired handmade art Installation.
    • Arista Vault. The team has developed various UVC based Shuddhi boxes to cater for sanitization of Mobiles, Jewelry, Vegetables, etc.
    • SaniShooter. This team has developed a unique wrist band based sanitiser spraying device to keep the hands of an individual always safe from the COVID 19 virus.
    • COVIPROTECT. The plan is to develop a dosage form of AV that a COVID- 19 positive patients can self-administer, either manually, by autoinjector, or with the help of a nonprofessional individual.
    • Silaigram. Silaigram is all about women’s empowerment. They are producing Biodegradable masks that protect the user from the COVID-19 virus. The masks are being made by rural women by using patented technology.
    • Nanotekt. They have developed a smart anti-microbial coating that gives protection from various microbes including the COVID virus.
    • Three Not Robotics Pvt. Ltd. They are developing a UV cage for sanitization of various items.
    • Aparoks Tech Private Limited. The all-women team has developed a non-invasive FIR (Far Infrared) band that uses our body’s IR (Infrared) rays and supplement it to increase immunity, improve healing, and reduce blood pressure. It can act as a boon for COVID patients in increasing their immunity.
    • Nirog India Pvt. Ltd. Cloud-based integrated platform hosting a pool of services and technology vendors for the fight against COVID 19.
    • Invenzee. It is to cater to the problem of sanitizing, they have designed, developed, and put forth an innovative and patented idea of portable and easy to carry ‘Sanitizer dispenser unit’.
    • Co Protect. They have developed a mask based on UVC- technology.

    Kick start ceremony took place on 15th December for the COVID 19 Cohort by Lemon Ideas in association with GIZ. The ceremony was attended by all the cohort participants in presence of Mr. Shankar Kumar and Ms. Arushi Tangri from GIZ. Mr. Deepak Menaria, Mr. Mukesh Ashar, Lt. Col. Saurabh Shah (Retd), Mr. Girish Raju, Mr. Ashwin Korde, and Ms. Neha Singhania was also present from Lemon Ideas. The session commenced with a welcome note by the host, Lt Col Saurabh Shah (Retired.), VP, BD and Partnerships with Lemon Ideas where in, he described the objective of this Cohort mentoring program and what outcomes should the cohort focus on by the end of the program. He also introduced GIZ and Lemon Ideas to the cohort members. Followed by the welcome address was short introduction by all the 15 Cohort members about their start-up and their ideas. The session was then addressed by Mr. Deepak Menaria, CEO – Lemon Ideas where he spoke about the inception of an idea of running a COVID 19 Campaign around crowdsourcing ideas by Lemon Ideas from Mar 2020 to Jun 2020. He then gave an insight into how this cohort was conceptualized with the help of GIZ and the way forward for all the Cohort teams. Mr. Shankar Kumar, Advisor GIZ gave an insight into his organization GIZ and various projects they have undertaken in past. He also highlighted the Indo- German Startup exchange program which is slated to happen in Feb 2021 and how the teams from this cohort could leverage the same through Lemon. Mr. Mukesh Ashar, Director – LSE thanked GIZ for always supporting team Lemon in all possible manner and encouraging Startups with their initiatives. Following this, the house was opened for Q&A and the session concluded with the closing remarks by the host. In this cohort session, approximately 100 startups were screened where 15 got selected. Jury fixed a parameter first to get 15 gems. The assessment parameters being assessed by Jury for the final selection were something like this.

    1. Clarity of Idea and Problem
    2. Stage of Start-up
    3. Visible ability, knowledge,skills, and experience of the team in executing the business idea
    4. Degree of innovation
    5. Evidence of Work visible
    6. Quickness for Implementation

    All the teams were assessed by a qualified jury consisting of 4-5 jury members. The assessment parameters were ranked on an increasing scale of 1 to 4 i.e. 1 stood for poor and 4 stood for excellent. The scores given by each jury were recorded and then an overall score of the team was arrived at by averaging the scores given by all the jury members. This way this Cohort venture got its shape.

    By

    Vaibhav Singh
    Hindu College. University of Delhi
    New Delhi – 110007
    Phone. +91-9455599489