CHENNAI: Scrapify Ecotech – a climate tech startup founded by Chennai-based entrepreneur M P Azhagu Pandia Raja – is one of the two companies selected to represent India at the Next Generation Digital Action Programme 2024 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Of the 2,000 applications, Scrapify has bagged a spot among the 18 shortlisted companies.
At the event, Scrapify Ecotech will present ‘Ecofloater’, a robotic equipment designed to clean waterbodies.
Besides collecting wastes, the Ecofloater can monitor water quality by assessing pH and algae presence, clear water hyacinth and remove oil contaminants using a high-sensitive oil-spill cleaning module among others.
Quitting his job at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Azhagu joined the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs as a research fellow and was later appointed as the City Innovation Officer for the Greater Chennai Corporation, a first in the country. In 2022, Azhagu started Scrapify Ecotech and was incubated at Tamil Nadu’s iTNT hub. Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan congratulated Azhagu and wrote on ‘X’, “This achievement underscores that the iTNT Hub has begun to bear fruit in nurturing promising ventures.”
About the Denmark event, Azhagu said, “This is a huge opportunity for us. Through this programme, we are expecting a lot of exposure, networking and funding opportunities. More importantly, the knowledge transfer,” he added.
The Next Generation Action is a flagship initiative at DTU Skylab, the innovation hub at the Technical University of Denmark. The theme for the 2024 annual event is ‘Water and Sustainability’.