Led by Social Alpha and UTIF, the startups support low-carbon transitions
Nine climate-tech start-ups are set to deploy solutions addressing critical urban sustainability challenges across 10 Indian cities – Chennai, Kozhikode, Bengaluru, Khammam, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Bhavnagar and New Delhi.
Under the Innovations in Sustainable Urban Transition Program, led by Social Alpha and the University of Toronto India Foundation (UTIF), these start-ups will deploy solutions that support low-carbon transitions across these cities.
The selected start-ups will receive grants of up to Rs.35 lakh to support the deployment of their innovations and help de-risk their adoption in urban environments.
The selected start-ups will deploy innovations across sectors critical to urban sustainability, including low-carbon construction materials, renewable energy, waste management, water efficiency and sanitation.
The nine startups include:
• Carbon Strong, whose proprietary fly ash-based binder replaces 35-40% of cement in concrete, cutting embodied carbon and costs with no process change for producers.
• Satiq Concrete Manufacturer, which develops low-temperature, waste-derived binders and engineered composites that deliver lightweight, high-strength, thermally efficient concrete with significantly lower emissions.
• Go Do Good Studio, which creates home-compostable food packaging using proprietary plant-based coatings and inks that eliminate plastic from urban food delivery and catering.
• Vivifica Sustainable Solutions, a patented WENERATOR of which integrates process optimisation, IoT-based monitoring and multi-stage digestion to convert mixed organic waste into clean biogas at source, designed for institutional kitchens and canteens.
• Apeiro Energy, which develops vertical small wind turbines optimised for low wind speeds, paired with smart controllers, monitoring systems, energy management systems and an AI micrositing tool for wind-solar hybrid microgrids.
• Trinano Technologies, whose patented nano coating for solar panels increases energy output by 4%+, extends panel life by 2-3 years, and cuts cleaning requirements by 50%, addressing inefficiencies that reduce energy production.
• Smart Terra, whose AI-driven SaaS creates a digital twin of water networks to detect leaky pipes and faulty meters and predict operational inefficiencies in water networks with under 100-metre precision, and is agnostic to hardware, sensor or database technologies.
• Vayujal Technologies, whose atmospheric water generators can produce 43 to 3,000 litres of drinking water per day from air for homes, offices, institutions, industries and communities, in an energy-efficient manner, with zero water wastage and adherence to BIS 10500.
• Xpredict Labs, whose HiDrEC is a decentralised, packaged wastewater treatment system that runs on electrochemical principles with no external chemicals, requiring lower land footprints while producing reusable CPCB-compliant water.
The technologies will be deployed through 17 partnerships spanning 11 private and six public organisations across 10 Indian cities, with expected outcomes spanning emissions reduction, waste diversion, production of energy from clean sources, energy efficiency, reduction in non revenue water losses, reduced dependence on groundwater, and increased access to clean drinking water.
The pilot partners include ready-mix concrete manufacturers (RMCs) such as Veera Concrete and PCS Industries, schools under the Government of Maharashtra and Government of Tamil Nadu, research institutions such as the Central Road Research Institute, hospitals including Kilpauk Medical College Hospital and Meitra Hospital, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Contendre Solar and Boson Whitewater, industries such as Ashapura Saltworks and Yashpoly, real estate companies such as DRA Homes, and urban local bodies and utilities including the Khammam Municipal Corporation and Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
On the Program, Ganesh Neelam, Co-founder, Social Alpha, said on 26 June, “By 2036, India’s towns and cities are expected to be home to 600 million people. As urban populations grow, pressure on the systems that support everyday life will intensify. Cities will need to rethink how they design and construct infrastructure, manage resources, deliver essential services and build resilience to climate risks. Addressing these challenges requires solutions that are practical, reliable and deployable at scale. Our aim is to support a growing pipeline of innovators addressing urban sustainability challenges and support the deployment of these solutions across Indian cities.”
Gauravi Lobo, Director, U of T India Foundation, said, “What this program has surfaced is that the constraint isn’t the technology. It’s the distance between a working solution and a public system ready to absorb it. The nine start-ups in this cohort are being tested against that distance, with pilots designed around what urban local bodies and civic institutions actually need to make adoption decisions. For UTIF, that is where the research question lives – and what we carry back to the University of Toronto is not just the outcome, but the institutional logic of how Indian cities are learning to integrate innovation at scale.”
The Innovations in Sustainable Urban Transition Program was first launched in 2024. Its first cohort of eleven start-ups deployed innovations in 11 cities addressing air quality, sanitation, waste management, clean mobility and low-carbon construction materials. The Program demonstrated that deep-tech innovations can be contextualised, de-risked and deployed through structured public and private partnerships, generating measurable outcomes in emissions avoidance (105.99 tonnes of CO2e), waste diversion (407.15 tonnes), water savings (16,896 kilolitres) and improved air quality (between 20% – 94% reduction in PM 2.5 and 10 across four locations).
Social Alpha is an operating philanthropy dedicated to taking breakthrough science from lab to the last mile. Social Alpha’s full-stack, multistage innovation and venture development platform is designed to develop, de-risk and deploy frontier innovations to advance affordable healthcare, resilient livelihoods and climate action, prioritising the most critical challenges for people and planet. Founded in 2016, Social Alpha has supported over 450 innovations focused on socio-economic and environmental impact. For more information, please visit www.socialalpha.org.
The University of Toronto India Foundation, based in Mumbai, serves as a dynamic bridge connecting the University of Toronto with India’s academic institutions, innovators, non-profits, social enterprises and governments. Bringing together research, innovation and impact, UTIF works to address sustainability challenges faced by Indian cities through co-created solutions. Fiinews.com
