Purvesh Garg, Regional Business Development Manager for Middle East, recently participated in the Technology Innovation Pioneers Summit 2020. We sat down with Purvesh to hear his takeaways regarding technology innovation at the summit organized by the UAE Ministry of Economy and the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development.
Could you give a brief overview about Technology Innovation Pioneers Summit 2020?
The summit targets startups in envirotech, healthcare, and energy tech. Within these categories, there’s also subcategories: POC, patent, and startup. The primary objective of this summit is for the Ministry of Economy of the UAE, the Environment Agency, and Ministry of Healthcare to look at new technologies coming out in the market all over the world and recognize the best technology in each stream. There were over 3000 applicants who submitted their proposal back in February 2019. There were 4 rounds of evaluations and interviews. We got to the final round and were invited to Abu Dhabi for a pitch session, where the final winners were chosen. We won the startup category in envirotech.
What is the importance of us winning the envirotech award and what does this mean for Ecube Labs at large?
It gives us validation that the Ministry of Economy in the UAE is interested in our technology. Even the jury that was evaluating our pitch were from different parts of the envirotech stream. The fact that we were chosen as winners shows that there is a need for this technology in the market and that our products are innovative and correspond with smart city initiatives. Because we were able to exhibit our technology in an environment where many high level authorities were present, it gives people awareness that this kind of technology exists.
I believe our vision of going into IoT waste consulting is the first in the world.
Purvesh Garg
You mentioned that you did a pitch session for the final round. What were some of the judging criteria?
One criterion was how our solutions solve challenges based on social impact, ecological impact, and finally, overall impact. For social impact, our solutions create social awareness of segregating waste at the source. These days, most of the waste is still ending up at the landfills and waste diversion programs are quite weak. We bring those issues to light through audio on our CleanCUBES or by deploying dual or triple stations. When we throw out trash, and the CleanCUBE says something like, “Thank you for keeping Abu Dhabi clean,” people feel obligated to do their part in being more eco-friendly because they see the government invest their resources into an innovative waste solution. The impact of our dual and triple stations has been validated by our Melbourne case study where there was a higher rate in waste segregation at the source.
The ecological impact of our solutions is cleaner streets because there will be no overflowing bins or rodents. There’s also going to be less noise and air pollution coming from trucks that are going around collecting trash every single day.
For clients, the solution will reduce their manpower, costs, and number of deployed trucks. Overall, data generated from our solutions will increase transparency and visibility for the citizens and the entire city.
After participating in Technology Innovation Pioneers Summit 2020 , what is your current understanding of the direction of technology innovation? Where do you see Ecube Labs positioned within this movement?
There’s so many people from different streams who are creating innovative technologies. It was nice to network with them because I met some individuals we could potentially collaborate with. In the waste and envirotech sector, there’s a lot of companies working with solar tech, renewable energy, clean energy.
Where I see Ecube going is new because even though we have competitors in the market, some only focus on one product. With Ecube offering a very diverse collection of solutions and technologies, I believe our vision of going into IoT waste consulting is the first in the world. This was also a point of interest for the jury during the evaluation. We’re creating solutions catering to all stakeholders in the waste management industry under a single umbrella. I think we’re going in the right direction and it’s one in which we are the first ones to explore.
Any closing remarks?
It was humbling to stand on stage together with the Ministry of Economy and the excellencies from different departments. Overall it was a great learning experience, and the fact that we won was the icing on the cake.