Powered Accelerator, an entrepreneurship programme focused on twin Sustainable Development Goals of Energy and Diversity has selected nine women to be a part of its second cohort and will offer them financial and business support to help them develop their businesses and deliver access to energy solutions across India. Selected companies from the second cohort will be supported with an equity-free seed fund of up to $10,000.
Launched in April last year by the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), Shell Foundation (a UK-based charity), Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology, and Zone Startups India, the programme has since hosted its first cohort comprising 10 startups, extended equity- free seed fund of $10,000 to 6 startups and hosted a bootcamp for 5 very early-stage startups.
The accelerator programme, spread over three months, will include mentorship in various domains, one-on-one interactions with industry experts and investors, peer community building, showcase opportunity and access to a range of services and support.
The objective of the accelerator programme is to support women-led ventures by helping them expand their innovative and consumer-responsive products and services. The accelerator is focused on core themes of access to energy, sustainable mobility, waste to value, energy efficiency, and smart energy solutions.
The top nine women selected for the Second Cohort were selected from a cumulative application pool of 150+ applications. The entrepreneurs were evaluated based on the applicant’s background, innovativeness, the scale of impact, problem solution fit, clarity of thought, and programme fit. The selected entrepreneurs will now receive support for one year to scale their business including a 4 week residential mentoring programme and access to an equity-free seed fund upto $10,000 each.
Meet the women entrepreneurs:
Dr. Vanita Prasad, Founder and Director, product and technology R&D at REVY Environmental Solutions holds patents for specific innovation in the field of waste management and renewable energy. She founded REVY Environmental Solutions, which has developed a cost-effective and indigenous process of treating wastewater releasing biogas in the process.
Monika Jha, Founder and CEO of Cydee Technologies, which is developing unique patented streetlights to help public and private sectors reduce cost by reducing the number of light poles by 60%, saving 60% material, manufacturing, deployment and maintenance cost along with 30% Extra Energy Saving compared to conventional LED Streetlights.
Debashree Padhi, CEO of DD Biosolution Technology, which produces green energy from agro waste providing an end-to-end clean cooking solution for rural women and creating an optimized lifecycle for agro waste utilization into energy.
Bhavana Chittawar, Head of Business Development and Product Development of FinEffi Energy Solutions, which aims to save energy in the residential and commercial sector, reduce cost of electricity by at least 25% for the end user and make the end user aware of his/her energy usage by using their IoT devices and data analytics.
Manvi Dhawan, CEO & CFO of GTarang Energy Solutions, which is developing devices to convert waste thermal energy from day to day activities at individual and industrial setups into useful energy.
Susmita Bhattacharjee, MD & Founder of Pushan Renewable Energy, a social enterprise that provides innovative solar powered systems and products for income generation of rural Indian women.
Vidya Amarnath, Director of Paterson Energy, a Plastic Waste to Fuel Company manufacturing plants for recycling plastic waste into quality Plastic Oil using a continuous type Thermochemical Depolymerization Technology.
Disha Ahuja, Founder of Prakriti Biosystems Engineering, which converts organic waste into energy by using membrane-based modular solutions. She is developing a turn-key solution to purify Biogas to Bio-CNG (vehicular fuel and PNG) and industrial carbon dioxide.
Rukmani Katara, CEO of Durga Energy, a cleantech enterprise based in Rajasthan that has set up a solar panel manufacturing unit providing alternative livelihood opportunities to women working as labourers in farms by providing them training and employment in manufacturing, installation and maintenance of solar products.