In the National Startup Awards 2020 announced on Tuesday, three startups from Telangana, which are all headquartered in Hyderabad, have emerged as winners. Skyroot Aerospace and Dhruva Space won in the space category while Cornext Agri Products was declared the winner in the agriculture category.
In the space category, Bellatrix Aerospace from Mysuru was adjudged the third winner. Telangana had three applications in this category.
In the agriculture category, the other winners besides Cornext Agri Products included Mandya Organic Foods (Bengaluru), Intello Labs (New Delhi) and Nava Design & Innovation (Kochi). There were 10 applications in this category from Telangana.
The National Startup Awards are given in recognition of startups across several categories that offer novel solutions for complex problems in the country, and creating businesses that are scalable and sustainable. Winning companies are granted a reward of Rs 5 lakh.
This year, entries were received from across the country in 12 sectors including agriculture, energy, education, enterprise technology, finance, food, health, space, security and tourism.
Out of the 1,641 applications submitted from across the country, 82 applications were from startups in Telangana. The Enterprise Technology category received the maximum applications at 349, while the Space sector received the least at 15.
Skyroot Aerospace
Skyroot Aerospace is gearing up for the new Space Age by designing the Vikram Launch Vehicle. Once operational, it is likely to be one of the most cost-effective small satellite launch vehicles in the world. It was founded in 2018 by former ISRO scientists Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana.
The company claims that not only are its launch vehicles capable of being easily mass-produced, but the upper stage of the rocket can move itself out of orbit on mission completion, leading to negligible space debris. Further, the company says its upper stage liquid engines are fully 3D printed, resulting in cost savings of 40%. An efficient LNG/LOX cryogenic liquid engine that uses more sustainable rocket fuel has also been developed.
Dhruva Space
Dhruva Space develops small satellite constellations for earth observation and other scientific applications. It is also building satellites with de-orbiting functionality. The company says its space stack could enable 108 countries with no space assets to have satellites in orbit. Dhruva Space has received an invitation from the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centre in Austria for incubation along with a grant. The company was founded by Penakakuru Krishna Teja, Sanjay Srikanth Nekkanti, Abhay Egoor and Surapureddy Chaintanya Dora.
Cornext Agri Products
Cornext aims to solve the green fodder scarcity in the country caused by unsustainable crop practices and decrease in grazing lands. It preserves the green fodder in the form of silage. When there is a shortage, a large number of dairy farmers are benefited by using these silage bales. The company claims to have produced and distributed up to 1 lakh metric tonnes of baled silage as high-quality green fodder. The company was set up by Feroz Ahmed and Amarnath Sarangula.