India is struggling under the second wave of Covid-19 presently. Nearly three and a half million new corona-prone cases are being recorded every day, and over 3000 deaths occur.
It is a never-seen-before situation, not only for India but for the entire world.
While political parties are playing a blame game against each other under these crucial circumstances, the common citizens of India are unitedly fighting this pandemic. And there is one sector that is contributing the most to overcome this epidemic is the corporate sector, especially the emerging entrepreneurs.
From ensuring the best & timely services to the active covid cases to stimulate vaccination drive, Indian corporates have extended both arms to aid the government battling this deadly virus.
India witnessed a pathetic situation in the past few weeks, where the statistics of newly reported bounced too high from a mere thousand cases to 4 lakhs every day. The situation was intense that all medical facilities and essentials fell short of the perilous state.
As quoted by Martin Luther King Jr: ‘We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.’
Although the Covid-19 epidemic has posed bizarre challenges for the startup ecosystem of India, India’s startup ecosystem and especially a few emerging entrepreneurs stretched their services to battle with the second wave of the virus.
Let see how Indian startups and emerging entrepreneurs are aiding the government in the war with the second wave of the coronavirus.
Paytm to raise Rs 10 crore and aid with 3000 oxygen concentrators
Paytm launched its initiative’ Oxygen for India’, aiming to raise Rs 10 crore and import 3,000 oxygen concentrators for government and private hospitals, COVID-19 care centers, and NGOs. The startup already has served 1,000 oxygen concentrators worth Rs 4 crore. Till now, the Paytm Foundation has reached the sum of Rs. 3 crore.
CRED raising funds to provide oxygen concentrators
CRED, a Bengaluru-based startup, lofted an initiative to raise funds to buy oxygen concentrators for healthcare organizations. They have invited their members to donate their CRED coins towards buying oxygen-related equipment that Milaap will facilitate, India’s largest crowdfunding website. The initiative is aimed to raise funds to purchase equipment to produce one billion liters of oxygen.
Uber announced 60,000 free rides to authorized Vaccination centers.
On March 3rd, Uber announced its free rides initiative, pledging to support the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), State Governments, and local NGOs with free rides worth INR 10 Crores encouraging India’s ongoing vaccination drive. Uber has recently announced that their riders have already utilized over 60,000 free rides to get vaccinated at authorized centers in both government and private hospitals.
Along with that, Uber aids its support to HelpAge India, a leading national NGO dedicated to serving the disadvantaged elderly.
ACT Grants come forth, raising Rs 75 crore
ACT Grants, an organization supported by donations from Indian Startup founders, has pledged to raise more than Rs. 75 crore for oxygen solutions and India’s healthcare management.
Zomato to raise Rs 50 Cr to source oxygen concentrators in hands with Delhivery
Zomato has launched the “Help Save My India” mission through Feeding India in association with Delhivery, its not-for-profit arm to source oxygen concentrators to other essentials to support hospitals and families in need. Zomato’s founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal also tweeted that the startup will raise Rs 50 crore in the coming few days and have urged donors to donate to this campaign.
Meanwhile, Delhivery will be flying two planes to cater operational support for importing oxygen concentrators from china.
Shailendra Singh, the managing director of Sequoia Capital, tweeted that his team is looking to import oxygen concentrators.
Razorpay, a payment gateway provider, has also announced that it will aid NGOs to accept monetary help digitally. It will help them set up payment pages on their platform and avail them of instant payment settlements.
OpraahFx raised a Covid relief fund of over 50 Lakhs. Mythpat and Slay Point YouTubers, along with OpraahFx marketing firm, brought India’s most significant gamers and influencers together to raise Covid relief funds.
Startup founders of TrulyMadly, Crush Fitness India, Satvacart, DesignHill, and many others have launched a fundraising initiative named “Mission Oxygen.” They have aimed to access 3,000 oxygen concentrators to different hospitals in Delhi and Maharashtra.
Mi India also pledges to solicit 1000+ oxygen concentrators with Rs 3 crore.
HRTech has been servicing more than 200 meals for daily wage laborers and their families in Bengaluru.
It is not all; many other startups lend their support to the Indian government to combat this second wave of Covid-19.
India is going through a difficult phase, and in such a situation, our unity is our strength. Indian startups emerged as our armors during this epidemic.
We hope India recovers soon.