Thiruvananthapuram: Two Kochi-based start-ups have won the first and second places in the Hitachi India-Kerala Startup Mission Innovation Challenge.
The winner, Doorward Technologies, took up the challenge to develop an innovative digital platform for the small-scale retail sector in rural areas. The tech firm developed a platform to supply products, normally inaccessible to rural merchants, thereby helping them to make profits.
The company was founded by Basil Varghese and his wife Susanna K Kurian. The innovation won the firm a purse of Rs 20 lakh.
Runner-up Agrima Infotech won a cash award of Rs 10 lakh for its digital innovation that would avoid queues in supermarket billing counters. Instead of the cashier reading the barcode, the innovation would help the customer to create the bill using the electronic facility provided in the market.
Agrima was founded by Arun Ravi and Anoop Balakrishnan.
Bengaluru-based YobnY Tech, the second runner-up, won a purse of Rs 5 lakh. The start-up was floated by Sourabh Vyas and K Ratheesh Raj.
