IIIT-Delhi’s start-up Swapeco wins laurels at Urban Works Innovation Challenge 2019-2020

New Delhi: Swapeco - a student startup of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT Delhi) incubated at IIITD Innovation & Incubation center with a vision to bring about a systematic change in India’s recyclable waste management problem through their digital platforms -- has been declared as one of the three winning startups of the Urban Works Innovation Challenge 2019-2020 by Columbia Global Centers, Mumbai. Swapeco was also one of the selected companies for interviews at Y Combinator (an American seed accelerator) in 2019. Swapeco is led by IIIT-Delhi students Mukul Chhabra (Founder & CEO), Ashutosh Kumar (Co-Founder & CTO) and Vineet Rana (COO). The winners were declared after subsequent rounds of evaluation.    

Appreciating the start-up's achievement, Ranjan Bose, Director, IIIT-D, said, "We are happy that the efforts of our students are being recognized. Besides being responsible for education and research as its first two missions, the third mission of a modern university is to address the needs of society and industry by creating an environment that is conducive for innovation, leading to entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer,” said. Currently, the incubation center has 14 startups out of which 4 startups are by students of IIIT Delhi, and 3 startups are by Alumni of IIIT Delhi.

The challenge was a part of a joint project of Columbia Global Centers, Mumbai and Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, conceived to extend support to innovators and entrepreneurs who are passionate about producing viable and interdisciplinary tech-based solutions for transforming 21st century cities in India into sustainable work environments. The three winning startups will receive undisclosed capital grants from a total fund of INR 1.2 crores. They will also receive mentorship from the faculty of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science of Columbia University.
  
Swapeco has built an Uber and Amazon like platform for recyclables, where they provide doorstep pickups and monetary rewards to the consumer for effective recycling. Swapeco’s digital platforms connects the various stakeholders (generators, aggregators and recyclers) of the scrap recycling supply chain and assures 100% transparency & traceability among them. They provide a mobile app for households where users can schedule a hassle free doorstep scrap pickup which is executed by Swapeco trained & verified partner vendors of their area. Swapeco also provides ERP solutions for enterprises & small businesses which connects users with scrap recyclers & aggregators and also enables invoicing & formal payment methods among them. They have a significant amount of traction already, having had 4,500 app downloads and 42,000 kg of waste forwarded to recyclers via their platform in Delhi NCR.