Bill Gates partners with Indian charity to fight Covid-19
THE Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation have partnered with Action Covid-19 Team (ACT) Grants, India’s not-for-profit grant set up by some venture capital investors and start-up founders, which has crossed the initial milestone of $13.16 million.
The three Foundations have joined ACT Grants as donors and will extend the outreach of the initiative, it said in a statement. Gates Foundation will be a part of the projects’ selection process and will support the project execution, with a focus on States such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Wadhwani Foundation will also provide grants for selected projects, with a focus on immediate impact as well as improvement of the long term Indian healthcare system.
Further, the Foundation will provide pro-bono consulting services to these projects to facilitate capacity, stability and growth, it said.
ACT Grants said it has brought together the collective strength of over 50 venture capital firms, 40 start-ups and some of India’s entrepreneurs in the fight against Covid-19.
‘ACT has disbursed grants to 39 start-ups in 43 days. These grants fall in the areas of telemedicine, mass scale testing, patient tracking, suspect monitoring, contact tracing and manufacturing of PPE kits, all geared to combat Covid-19,’ the statement said.
ACT is a coalition of VCs, start-up community founders, entrepreneurs, investors and other industry veterans, according to the statement. The team has come together to provide grants between $1316 and $1.32m to start-ups and initiatives that are harnessing technology to create large-scale impact in the detection, prevention and eradication of Covid-19, it said.