While on the one hand COVID19 has disrupted business as usual for companies big and small, brought the 'real economy' to a standstill and caused a route in the public markets, it has also been a force multiplier in some spaces - as a society we are all collectively looking at the "problem rich" world we live with a new lens and "large whitespaces" that were hitherto unaddressed are taking main stage. Some such whitespaces are telemedicine, no touch health monitoring, mapping, etc.It's this fight against a virus and belief that innovative, entrepreneurial thinking can solve problems that brought startup founders, investors and tech professionals together to create Startup Vs Covid-19. This collective's agenda is to act as a 'force multiplier' for central and state government efforts pooling in technology as well as resources to solve some of these 'whitespace' problems under crunched timelines.The group started as an idea by former Flipkart executive Mekin Maheshwari and now includes the founders of Bounce, Homelane, Cred, Urban Company, BlackBuck, MyGate, 1mg, MapMyIndia, and numerous VCs such as Matrix Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners among others.LetsVenture has partnered with the Startup vs COVID-19 forum to bring you three projects that we believe are strong, need of the hour and will do well with your support.Here are short excerpts on them:
India Telemedicine Helpline is a large project that the group has facilitated. This project provides various state government helplines with a scalable telephony system to handle incoming calls as COVID cases spike. The helpline also has an intelligent IVRS system to screen callers for COVID symptoms and connect possible patients to doctors. India Telemedicine Helpline is already live in 6 states with many more in the pipeline.Key people working on this project includeRaghavendra Prasad (Founder of Qikwell), Rahul Mishra (Times Internet), Dr. Shuchin Bajaj (Founder, Ujjala Cygnus Hospitals) and Shivakumar Ganesan (CEO, Exotel)
The team is working on setting up temporary care facilities that will allow rapid deployment and setting up of ICUs for the care of COVID-19 patients as and when required. The team will bring together space, equipment, and trained personnel. The intent with this "ICU-in-a-box facility" is to help relieve part of the massive strain that is expected on our medical infrastructure in the next few months. A pilot at St. John's Hospital, Bangalore is now live.Key people working on this project include senior members from Urban Company and Pranav Chopra (Founder, Crimson Healthcare).
The team has created a platform that aims to aggregate demand across all services to provide pro bono relief. Surveillance, Thermal Imagining, Disinfection, Surveillance, and Essential Deliveries are some of the key aspects of this mobile bot, aiming to connect and aid law enforcement, health care providers, and other service providers in their activities. Key people include Aditya Kothari (Co-founder, Plixr).NOTE:
- Please note that these are not startups, these are projects
- LetsVenture is helping these teams raise grant money for each of their projects
- The grant will be routed via United Way and investors shall be provided an 80G certificate for the same
- Target fundraise for each project is INR 50 lakh
Show your interest HEREThe team members of all the projects will be doing a call on Wednesday, 29 April at 6 pm to provide us insights on their current statuses. RSVP for the call to learn more about the ground realities. Let's join forces to fight this!
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