Aafrin Kidwai 
Sweden-based H&M Foundation and Social Alpha have joined hands to launch “Techtonic – Innovations in Waste Management”, a nationwide mission to identify and curate locally designed, disruptive innovations addressing problems in waste management and improving the livelihoods of waste pickers.
The top five winners of Techtonic will join the first cohort of Social Alpha Waste Innovations Accelerator and receive support in their lab-to-market journey. The Accelerator will provide startups support with fully paid pilots, expert guidance, go to market strategy, ecosystem access, and an opportunity to pitch for seed capital investment up to Rs 1 Crore.
Techtonic – Innovations in Waste Management is inviting applications from start-ups that are working on addressing the following challenges in waste management:
- Network Optimization: Innovative solutions to build the supply chain efficiency of waste generated
- Data for waste management: Technology solutions for end-to-end waste traceability, transparency and visibility of the waste supply chain
- Waste to Value: Enabling recycling and resource recovery from waste streams through innovations, with a focus on low value waste
With an initial outlay of Rs 15 Crore committed by H&M Foundation and Social Alpha, the programme will continue to seek more partners as it progresses in its journey. It has also forged partnerships with Start-up India, Invest India, AGNii, Government of Karnataka, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Saamuhika Shakti with the objective to scale this initiative across the country.
Saamuhika Shakti, the collective impact project, is the programme partner for problem curation, pilots, and validations. Saamuhika Shakti brings together multiple organisations – BBC Media Action, CARE, LabourNet, Hasiru Dala, Save the Children, WaterAid and The/Nudge Foundation to work towards a common agenda of enabling waste pickers to have greater agency to lead secure and dignified lives.
The last date to apply to Techtonic – Innovations in Waste Management is January 31st, 2021.
To apply to the program, log onto to https://www.socialalpha.org/techtonic-innovations-in-waste-management/
