H&M Foundation, Social Alpha commit USD 2 million to support start-ups and innovations in waste management

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 one crore.With an initial outlay of Rs 15 Crore committed by HM Foundation and Social Alpha, the programme will continue to seek more partners as it progresses in its journey, the statement said.

Sweden based H&M Foundation and Social Alpha have joined hands to launch Techtonic Innovations in Waste Management, a nationwide grand challengetoidentify and curate locally designed, disruptive innovations addressing problems in waste management and improving the livelihoods of waste pickers. The aim is to create an enabling ecosystem stack for innovators and entrepreneurs developing waste management solutions with a focus on supply chains efficiencies, logistics traceability and waste to value systems, a joint statement said.

Top five winners of Techtonic will join the first cohort of Social AlphaWaste InnovationsAccelerator 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 one crore.

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, the statement said. 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, it was stated.