3 start-ups from Kerala bag the National Start-up Awards 2020

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Three start-ups from Kerala were able to secure a place in the National Start-up Awards 2020 in different categories. The results of the awards were announced on Tuesday, October 6. The start-ups include Thiruvananthapuram-based Genrobotics, Aluva-based jackfruit365 and Kochi-based Nava Design and Innovation. The winners of the awards were examined on the basis of 12 sectors such as agriculture, food processing, education, energy, etc.

Genrobotics Innovation Pvt Ltd has designed a robot named Bandicoot for cleaning manholes. This is presently being used by six states and has won the award in the category of ‘campus-initiated start-ups’ segment. Rashid K, Co-founder, Genrobotics, said that this award is the highest honour received by the start-up. He also said that Genrobotics offers a risk-free human-controlled robot as an alternative to manual scavenging.

Jackfruit365 was named in the ‘food processing’ category. They have managed to process flour made from green jackfruit for those suffering from high blood sugar. The start-up has also secured a patent this year. James Joseph, Founder, Jackfruit365, said that the vision of start-up is to use every jackfruit in the country to control the diabetes epidemic in India.

Nava Design and Innovation bagged the award in ‘agriculture-productivity’ segment. They have designed a robotic coconut sap tapping device named Saper. It reduced the number of human tree climbs from 270 to two in a period of three months. This device has received the patent in 28 countries covering almost 90 per cent of the coconut growing regions of the world. In addition to this, it is powered by solar energy.