Action in the time of COVID-19
INR 100CR grant created by India’s start-up community to give wings to ideas that could combat COVID-19 with immediate impact. We are seeking capital-efficient, scalable solutions from NGOs and innovative startups which need an initial seed grant to fight the spread of the pandemic.
What we're looking for
We are sponsoring ideas that could act as a force multiplier in today’s situation. We are backing India’s best start-up founders and deserving volunteers to combat Covid-19 using existing start-up assets. We are backing ideas that are capital efficient, scale ready and can create immediate impact
- Prevention of COVID-19 spread
- Scaling Testing
- Disease management at home
- Enhanced support for healthcare workers & hospitals
- Management of critically-ill patients
- Support for mental health
Prevention of COVID-19 spread
All ideas that help reduce the spread of the disease, including digital tools, social distancing apps, contract tracing, telemedicine, education etc.
Scaling Testing
All ideas which can help India scale testing for COVID-19, including new testing protocols, multi-stage testing frameworks, scaling current PCR testing capacity etc
Disease management at home
All initiatives where patients are supported via tele-medicine, provided healthcare services at home and guided to recover at home unless critically needed to go to hospitals
Enhanced support for healthcare workers & hospitals
All ideas that scale the availability of protective gear for healthcare workers, augment hospital capacity etc.
Management of critically-ill patients
All ideas that help expand ICU capacity, including trained staff, ventilators, oxygen supply, beds, tools for tracking capacity etc.
Support for mental health
All ideas that provide mental health support to families of patients and the broader community
Funds Raised (INR Cr)
Projects Funded
Volunteers
Applications
Funded Projects
StepOne
An initiative empowering states with scalable IVR in all Indian languages to triage patients' calls and connect to real doctors on the phone for consultation
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MyLab Discovery solutions
MyLab provides an easy, affordable, and fast-to-use Covid-19 testing kit that can be used without any RT PCR platform.
Learn MoreEthereal Machines
Develops uniquely designed splitters (advanced ventilators) that can accomodate two patients each to combat lack of ventilators, while preventing cross-contamination and managing differential ventilatory needs
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Karkhana.io
Produces essential PPEs along with tools for manufacturing ICU equipment and other PPEs using a variety of new-age techniques such as 3D printing, injection molding etc.
Learn MoreCoronasafe Network
CoronaSafe Network is a stealth war strategy that is being implemented in Kerala by a group of professional volunteers with full understanding and support of the Chief Ministers Office (Kerala).
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Fashinza
Fashinza is providing a scalable demand-supply matching platform for all PPE, while providing a working capital advance to suppliers. They are also providing connections with 3rd party logistics to fulfill raw material and final delivery. Fashinza also enables production of complete PPE kits, by onboarding more suppliers in areas of shortage.
Learn MoreSpecialist Teleconsultation
This project will explore how one can use the vast Primary care providers in India with specialist consultations so that patients can be managed locally until it is necessary for patients to be admitted to the hospital for both COVID and non-COVID patients. If this project is successful, then, it will help reduce unnecessary visits to the hospitals and have the hospital capacity for really needed patients.
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Clovia
Clovia is working on manufacturing superior quality PPE kits (including products having higher GSM fabric with lamination, sealed seams with anti-bacterial tapes, flap over zipper sealed with velcro)
Learn MoreInfinite Analytics
Infinite Analytics is a tech solution aiding tracing of high risk individuals based on their accurate historic proximity and time of contact with infected individuals.
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1mg
1mg is has built a complete workflow from tele-consulting to testing. They're also creating booths for drive through testing to reduce cost
Learn MoreDronaMaps
Drona Maps has built a full-service technology-enabled war-room solution for public and admin dashboards enabling geofencing, containment zone definition, patient and quarantine monitoring and predictive analysis. Fully deployed with Punjab and Rajasthan Governments (tracking 100K+ people) with 4 more states in the pipeline.
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ePsyclinic
2 pronged approach to mental health: Helpline approach (Helplines which can provide instant 20-40mins counseling for people with moderate health issues) and Platform approach (connecting people for 1-on-1 therapy sessions through the psychologists recruited by ePsyclinic)
Learn MoreMozark
Mozark has helped DoT to build an open platform for states to use to monitor quarantine individuals and issue alerts, identify the geography of the population density of infection, monitor densely visited public spaces, retrace infected people’s movements and geofence quarantined geographies. States can request authorization from DoT to integrate their war room tech with this platform. Live with quarantine monitoring for >150K individuals.
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Zetwerk
Zetwerk is augmenting the supply of ‘coveralls’ to fasten time to market by repurposing factories of existing garment manufacturers to produce coveralls. They also connect manufacturers to suppliers of raw materials for faster procurement. Zetwerk is also aggregating and matching demand along with logistics
Learn MoreCOVID Response - Mental Health
Connects trained psychologists for one-on-one sessions with vulnerable people. The pool of psychologists has a collective linguistic base of 22 languages. Counters the supply gap due to its strong partnerships with mental health organizations
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Healthians
Developing a 3 pronged approach to holistic and scalable testings through at-home testing, drive-through testing and booth/kiosk based testing. All of this is being done for COVID while leveraging their core business which is to conduct diagnostic tests.
Learn MoreImpactGuru
Plans to fundraise for PPE for Hospitals via Crowdfunding, CSR, Employee Giving as well as Crowdfunding at Corporates, Rotary & other clubs. Funds will be transferred directly to PPE suppliers via Moglix. ImpactGuru plans to raise 5 - 10x the grant received through ACT
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HuWel
HuWel has created an ICMR and DCGI approved RT-PCR test kit and manufactures the two critical enzymes used in the RT-PCR master mix in-house. As a result, they have more control over their supply chain, and are also cheaper. The company also manufactures and supplies RNA Extraction kits and Swab collection kits, both of which enable the sample to be contamination-free.
Learn MoreMolbio
MolBio has come up with an indigenously made portable RT-PCR machine and testing kits which are manufactured domestically primarily. These machines are battery operated (can last 8 hrs) equipped with data connectivity and perform 30-150 tests/day with a turnaround time of 45 mins. They also have an in-built printer for printing results. This way they can be used in the remotest areas. Since MolBio is not only making testing kits but the PCR machines itself, they can address a huge bottleneck in testing capacity
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PCR Sample Pooling Project
Aim to reduce cost of testing by 60-80% by pooling RT-PCR samples thereby reducing the need for RT-PCR machines. The project also aims to identify the potential hotspots in Karnataka.
Learn MoreMax Ventilators
An established team that has been manufacturing ventilators for a lot of time, Max has 4 existing models for sale – Proton Plus (advanced intensive care use), Respimax (intensive care and multipurpose use) and Neo (smaller non-intensive use) - and are developing a new advanced model that will be rolled out within the next month (WeanX). These models address varying needs of hospitals
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Goodera
India’s leading CSR management platform, it will fundraise for hospitals to buy PPEs. ACT will add 10-20% matching donations for any grant given through Goodera. Goodera will connect leading CEOs and CSR heads in India to provide funds and fill the demand for hospital PPEs.
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Drone Federation of India
DFI is developing a platform to connect state authorities with drone pilots in the region, who can help monitor specific regions in conjunction with local police. They are also working on a platform to connect demand for larger drones for sanitization/delivery with manufacturers.
Learn MoreIntugine
Intugine is a location intelligence company working in logistics and supply chain tracking, already tracking 1 lakh+ drivers every month for Phillips, Mahindra, Flipkart, Arvind lifestyle etc. They do this by using telecom data which then leads to creation of a location map dashboard in the war rooms, through which regular alerts are also sent out to relevant authorities.
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Sattva
Sattva, a social impact consulting organization, is working closely with ACT to provide their project management expertise for ACT with a team of 5 consultants and an engagement manager to support Project Management & Reporting, Volunteer Engagement & Support, Grantee responsive support, and Ecosystem Engagement & Network Amplification
Learn MoreHimedia
HiMedia is India’s largest supplier of Viral Transport Media (VTM) used in the sample collection kits and also the largest supplier of RNA extraction kits, both of which seem to be the next bottlenecks in the testing process as as most existing suppliers are international companies who will be unable to supply sufficient kits given competing international demand and issues with international shipments.
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Nocca Robotics
Nocca manufactures mobile controlled, low-cost (~INR 60K to 90K per piece) and easy to manufacture intensive care ventilators specifically designed for Covid-19 cases - modular design which can accommodate different components onto the mainframe platform and has feature sets in-line with the latest MoFHW guidelines
Learn MoreCloudphysician
Cloudphysician enables remote ICU monitoring by using standardized protocols to provide 24X7 monitoring, assessment, and support to patients in ICUs using intensive EMR, audio-visuals, and alert systems. Telemonitoring of ICUs can be an effective way to approach COVID treatment by improving intensivist-to-patient ratio, allowing experienced insivitists to guide junior doctors and reducing exposure of other staff
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CritICU
CritICU enables remote ICU monitoring by using standardized protocols to provide 24X7 monitoring, assessment, and support to patients in ICUs using intensive EMR, audio-visuals, and alert systems. Led by former director of Fortis’ eICU initiative, CritICU is already operational and have a pipeline to go live for 100 ICU beds specifically for the COVID crises
Learn MoreHFNC Devices
Since HFNC devices are hypothesised to be highly effective in regulating the respiratory needs and body pressure to battle the virus, ACT has purchased 4 HFNC devices to conduct trials with a doctor. Upon successful trial (quality check), we intend to scale the order size with the specific Chinese vendor who helps us minimizes the time to market for these devices
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EkDesh
EkDesh is a communication platform that defines critical, legitimate messages and then owns the dissemination across all media (social, press, govt, organizations, individuals) facilitated by their partners, influencers & owned assets (such as Tik Tok, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc). This is done with a view to promote awareness related to COVID to the Indian masses.
Learn MoreMicroGo
MicroGo has an iOT enabled hand hygiene device called GoAssure which assures hand hygiene compliance (viz., six steps of hand hygiene and 20 secs hand rubbing) and provides data on individual compliance. The devices are currently deployed at AAI operated airports. MicroGo also supplies refill bottles for the sanitiser solution to be used in the device
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InnAccel
InnAccel is developing a non-invasive ventilation system that provides respiratory support to moderately severe hypoxemic Covid patients, before incubating them and starting invasive ventilation. It is doing so by providing CPAP with a helmet-patient interface that prevents the spread of infections and developing HFNC devices which provide high-flow oxygen. The system is equipped to deal with infrastructural challenges such as unreliable electricity, compressed oxygen and is designed for use by semi-skilled health workers with minimal training
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How ACT Grants will help
We will help you as follows:
Application criteria
If you are an NGO / SMEs / startup that has a real solution to tackle problems arising due to COVID-19 and need financial support, apply now! The grant is sector agnostic and the solution can stem from any sector - services, manufacturing, healthcare, among others.
Our Donors
Members of startup community that have come together in an attempt to combat COVID-19 with immediate impact
Following founders and corporate leaders have generously donated their time and resources
Members of these funds have donated in personal capacity
Organisations that have donated
Our Partners
Members of the larger community that are supporting us
How You Can Help
ACT In the News
For latest information regarding COVID-19 in India, please visit Ministry of Health and Family Welfare website here.