The Action Covid Team (ACT) Grants, a coalition of the top 50 investors and 40 entrepreneurs in India, was formed earlier in the year. 49 Indian startups working on COVID-19 get ACT grants since April. The capital pool is Rs 100 crore.
“We received 1600 applications till date, we invested in 49 of those, disbursed close to Rs 50 crore. We have given grants to a wide range of organizations, sometimes to get the idea started. We have a very broad-based investment committee with independent members to deal with situations where there might be a conflict,” said Prashanth Prakash, founding partner of Accel India, one of India’s leading venture capital firms and a member of this alliance in an interview.
“The focus has been on funding ventures that have an innovation that can be scaled up and become a force multiplier in the fight against Covid19. Grants funding innovation is a white space that ACT is trying to fill. State Govts have adopted solutions funded by ACT. There is a lot of potential in areas like home quarantine management, oxygen therapy and mental wellness,” Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Urban Company founder & CEO, said in an interview with ET NOW.
The 49 Indian Startups working on COVID-19 get ACT Grants were dabbling with ideas in care-giving, prevention, testing, data collection, mental wellness, and vaccine research have received funding from ACT Grants. Startups such as Mylab, Ethereal Machines, Infinite Analytics, 1MG, Sattva, HFNC devices, Housejoy, Portea, and Goodera have received backing from ACT Grants. A grant was also provided to Bharat Health Stack’s Swasth app, which is focussing on taking telemedicine to a national stage.
Former head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nachiket Mor said, “The response has been tremendous so far. The focus of ACT’s work has been to be responsive to the government if it saw a need for PPEs, ventilators, isolation. To act as a force multiplier but also be prepared for new areas that might be on the horizon” in the same interview with ET NOW.
The ACT Grants alliance boasts of the top brass from India’s startup ecosystem. Venture capital firms like Sequoia, Accel, Lightspeed, SAIF, Kalaari to entrepreneurs such as Mukesh Bansal to support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Nandan Nilekani, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, and Kris Gopalakrishnan, all support this innovative idea to help India in its fight against the novel coronavirus.
