The 7 startups who won the Ayushman Bharat Startup Grand Challenge have been working to empower 500 million people to access affordable healthcare as is the vision behind this government initiative. 320 startups working in the field of Digital Health, Health Communications, Medical Devices, Medical Workforce capacity building and training, Hospital Management and Hospital Services participated in the challenge. A rigorous review process was followed to identify the 7 best in 320 entries for their cutting-edge solutions. The winners were rewarded with cash prizes, public procurement support, mentorship, business acceleration and were connected to relevant state governments. The applications were opened from 1st October 2019 and the deadline was 30th November 2019. The winners were announced in the year 2020.

Categories of Evaluation

The grand challenge was a collaborative initiative of the National Healthy Authority, Startup India and BIRAC. The grand jury comprising of eminent industry leaders of India evaluated the participants of the challenge in 7 categories – [1] Ensuring quality care [2] Strengthening fraud and abuse control [3] Reducing cost of services at the point of care [4] Maximizing capacity of health workforce [5] Enhancing quality and security of data [6] Increasing beneficiary awareness and [7] Maximizing pre and post treatment engagement. 

The Startup Winners

[1] Tricog Health – It won in the category of Ensuring Quality of Care. Charit Bhograj, Zainul Chaarbiwala, Udayan Dasgupta and Abhinav Gujjar are the Founders of the organization.

[2] Truecover – This startup won in the category of Strengthening Fraud and Abuse Control. Ashish Chandra is the Founder.

[3] Incredible Devices Pvt. Ltd – It won in the category of Reducing Cost of Services at the Point of Care. Vikram Goel and Rajwinder Kaur are the Founders.

[4] HealthCloudAILabs – The category was Maximizing Capacity of Health Workforce. Nitesh Shroff and Preeti Bhargava are the Founders.

[5] Universal Mednet Pvt. Ltd – It won in the category of Enhancing the Quality and Security of Data - Rohit Raheja is its Founder.

[6] OnionDev Technologies (Gram Vaani) – It won in the category of Increasing Beneficiary Awareness. Vijay Sai Pratap and Aaditeshwar Seth are the Founders.

[7] Winner:  Periwinkle Technologies Pvt. Ltd – This startup won in the category of Maximizing pre and post- treatment engagement. Veena Moktaali & Koustubh Naik are the Founders.

The winning startups resolved to work upon accelerating the work being done in the arena of  Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana so that more and more people can get awareness and access to it. They have been elated to be part of a unique opportunity that landed them the role of an important stakeholder in implementing the largest government-funded health assurance scheme in the world.