Indian startup among winners of Prince William instituted Earthshot Prize 2023

The five Winners were selected by Prince William and the Earthshot Prize Council, chaired by the architect of the Paris Agreement, Christiana Figueres. Other council members included Sir David Attenborough, Jack Ma and Indra Nooyi, among others.

S4S Technologies was selected for its efforts to "build a waste-free world". The Maharashtra-based combats food waste, rural poverty and gender inequality by helping smallholder female farmers preserve and market surplus produce.

Founded in 2013 by six university friends—Nidhi Pant, Vaibhav Tidke, Swapnil Kokte, Ganesh Bhere, Shital Somani, Tushar Gaware and Ashwin Pawade—S4S Technologies provides rural communities with cheaper solar-powered conduction dryers and food processing equipment to prepare their crops on-site, rather than using cold storage or other more expensive methods of conventional industrial food preservation.

The Harsh Mariwala’s Marico Innovation Foundation-incubated organisation, which also provides market linkages, claims to have helped about 300,000 women smallholder farmers record 10-15% increases in profits, while 2,000 female entrepreneurs have seen income double or triple.

Solving key business challenges for India’s food industry and farmers, S4S Technologies in May this year claimed to have crossed the ₹100 crore revenue milestone.

By 2025, S4S wants to extend their reach to three million smallholder farmers and 30,000 entrepreneurs. By 2026, they predict they will have reduced food waste by 1.2 million tonnes and removed the equivalent of 10 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.