The global impacts of climate change are already being felt across the ecosystem, particularly in agriculture. Innovation and collaboration are the most fundamental pillars for us to develop long-term, viable solutions for the future climate & sustainability concerns. With this point of view, the Improving Lives Foundation along with, Bioriidl, riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar launched the Climate Tech & Sustainability Acceleration Program funded by OmniActive Health Technologies. This unique residential program kicked off with 20 visionary climate entrepreneurs selected from over 150 applications, with the idea to help these solutions scale and tackle challenges particularly focused on agriculture and innovation in the material domain. The solutions panned domains of space technology, materials, clean energy, agriculture technology, and horticulture. The program was one of the most diverse programs ever, with solutions from the length and breadth of India - from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from the most rural districts to the financial capital, showcasing the true vision of Viksit Bharat. Chaitanya Desai, COO & India Head, OmniActive Health Technologies stated, "This program reaffirms OmniActive's commitment to fostering innovation, and gives corporates like ours an opportunity to support & leverage the creativity of these young startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, paving the way for real-world implementation of groundbreaking solutions.” Recognizing the potential of these startups from this cohort to make a global impact, the top 6 startups were awarded grants to commercialize their innovations at scale. These grants were particularly focused on accelerating the growth of the innovations identified and nurtured during this program. These included:  

Bhavna Pandya, Head, Bioriidl & Innovation Catalyst, riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar, emphasized the importance of supporting startups stating, “The Climate Tech & Sustainability Acceleration Program stands as a testament to the collective dedication towards addressing the challenges posed by climate change. By nurturing and supporting the next generation of climate entrepreneurs, we are enabling them to build a more sustainable future for generations to come.” Throughout the program, the startups benefitted from over 15 curated workshops by industry experts covering domains including Supply Chain Management, Digital Marketing, Agricultural Market Insights, Customer Discovery, Grant Writing, IP & many several more. In addition, the program also facilitated industry connections, one-to-one mentorships, dedicated office hours, networking events to facilitate interaction with HNIs, and demo day with sector specific investors. To this, Rushva Parihar, Head, Improving Lives Foundation added, “We are proud to be able to foster innovation. The biggest challenge that startups face is not being able to move from the idea to scale stage by commercializing their products or offerings. Through this unique program, we hope that we have been able to give them the support and funding to help scale these ground breaking solutions in the sustainability domain. We are committed to continuing our support to all the startups and helping them as needed in their journey.”