S4S Technologies, an Indian full-stack food-processing, solar-tech platform, is among the five winners of what’s called the "Eco Oscars"—the
Earthshot Prize 2023, which was founded by Britain’s Prince William.
Acción Andina, GRST, WildAid Marine Program, S4S Technologies, and Boomitra are named 2023 Winners and will each receive a catalytic £1 million prize to support efforts to scale their innovative climate and environmental solutions.
The winners were whittled down from a shortlist of 15 finalists, each solving one of the five problems identified by the prize: "Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-Free World and Fix our Climate."
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.
