ET Startup Awards 2022: Nominees for Top Innovator

Company name: Eyestem

ETtech

Dr Jogin Desai, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Eyestem

Founded in: 2015

Founders: Jogin Desai, Dhruv Sareen, Rajarshi Pal, Rajani Batu

Based in: Bengaluru

Key investors: Alkem Laboratories, Biological E, Natco Pharma, Endiya Partners

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What it does: Eyestem is a cell therapy company aiming to build a platform to help treat people with seemingly incurable diseases, and enable access to newer technologies for the bottom 95% of the population. Its lead product, Eyecyte-RPE, treats age-related macular degeneration, which causes blindness in people aged over 60.

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ET Startup Awards 2022: Jury looks for an upstart that can go the distance

Company name: Haber

ETtech

Founded in: 2017

Founders: Vipin Raghavan, Priya Venkat, Arjunan PN

Based in: Pune

Key investors: Ascent Capital, Accel, Elevation, Beenext, Mukul Chawla

What it does: Haber aims to provide accessible automated solutions to optimise operations in process manufacturing industries. Haber’s SaaS products leverage data to facilitate strategic production-related decision-making. Its flagship product eLIXA automates the tedious manual process of sample collection, measurement, analysis and intervention at factories on a real-time basis.

Nominees for Comeback Kid

Company Name: Eeki Foods

ETtech

L-R Abhay Singh, Amit Singh, Eeki Foods

Founded In: 2018

Founders: Amit Kumar and Abhay SIngh

Based In: Kota

Key Investors: General Catalyst Partners, AngelList, Avaana Capital Advisors, GSF

What it Does: Eeki Foods has set up climate-proof farms that use IoT-powered chambers to grow a variety of residue-free Indian staple vegetables without manual labour. The firm cultivates 12 different crops, including tomato and cucumber, without any growing media such as soil or coco peat.

Nominees for Bootstrap Champ

Company Name: Exponent Energy

ETtech

Arun Vinayak (R), Founder, Exponent Energy

Founded In: 2020

Founders: Arun Vinayak and Sanjay Byalal Jagganath

Based In: Bengaluru

Key Investors: Lightspeed, YourNest, 3one4 Capital, AdvantEdge, Pawan Munjal Family Trust

What it Does: Exponent Energy offers lithium-ion cell battery packs, which it claims can be charged in 15 minutes, for a range of 80-85 km. It offers a 3,000-km warranty on battery packs charged at Exponent Energy e-pumps. The company says it is building the world’s fastest-charging, three-wheeler EV with OEM Altigreen.

Company Name: Astrogate Labs

ETtech

Nitish Kumar Singh, cofounder, Astrogate

Founded In: 2017

Founders: Nitish SIngh and Aditya Kedlaya

Based In: Bengaluru

Key Investors: Speciale Invest, Anicut Capital, SuprValue, First Cheque, LetsVenture, AngelList,

What it Does: Astrogate Labs is among a dozen companies worldwide building satellite laser communication systems. The company started out offering end-to-end laser communication services to satellite operators. It has built the system indigenously, including the microrad-level precision pointing and tracking system required for laser communications.