BANGALORE, India -- Arcatron Mobility, a Pune-based start-up that manufactures wheelchairs and related products, won the top prize at SURGE 2016, an event that showcased India's booming entrepreneurial ecosystem in the southern Indian city Wednesday.
Arcatron won $100,000 worth of credits from Google to be used across Google Cloud Platform products to improve its products. The company, along with the other two finalists, was also granted access to technical resources, while the runners-up won $20,000 in credits from Google.
"This is amazing,"Ganesh Sonawane, CEO of Arcatron Mobility, told International Business Times, India in a statement. "SURGE is one of the biggest start-up conferences in India and to be crowned as the winner gives a lot of boost to fulfill our dreams. There are a lot of challenges in the space and a lot of support will be needed. This is a very huge exposure for us."
Arcatron builds next-generation devices to enhance the lives of the elderly and those with limited mobility. It designs products like the Arcatron SAS100, an attendant propelled wheelchair that aims to help users lead a more independent lifestyle.
Sonawane told IBTimes India his company was hoping to launch the product in April and planned to sell at least 5,000 units in the next 12 months. Arcatron is also looking at setting up its own R&D facility to strenghten its base on the design front while outsourcing the manufacturing process to a third party.
Locus, a company that provides logistics solutions, and SME Corner, which helps small and mid-sized businesses borrow loans, were the other two finalists. Earlier these three companies made it to the top three after the judging panel narrowed down the list from eight start-ups for the semi-final round.
The judges included Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal, Dave McClure, founder of 500 Startups; Sunil Rao, chief of the startup ecosystem at Google India; and Future Perfect Ventures' founding partner Jalak Jobanputra.
The two-day event was the first time that the annual SURGE event was hosted in India.
