Hyderabad: Reflecting the vibrancy of Hyderabad’s startup ecosystem, city-based Makers Hive, which works on bionic arms, has found a place in the ‘Forbes Asia 100 to Watch’ list. It is one of the 22 small companies and startups from the country that are on the rise and found a place in the Forbes list.
Forbes has slotted the company in the ‘Biotechnology and Healthcare’ segment. Founded in 2018, the company makes fully functional bionic arm. Typically, the bionic arm costs US $30,000 or more, making it prohibitive for most of the 39 million amputees worldwide. Makers Hive, which is creating the parts of the bionic arm in-house, is working to bring the bionic arm under the brand KalArm for about US $5,000 (Rs 3.65 lakh).
“Figuring in the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list validates the work we are doing. Our product, whose assembly line is getting ready, will reduce the cost of a bionic arm significantly. Due to Covid, many startups across the sectors were affected badly. Our entire team kept going despite various hardships,” Pranav Vempati, Makers Hive CEO, told Telangana Today on Tuesday. Vempati also figured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list earlier. The company has two more co-founders Harsha Reddy and Suren Marumamula.
According to Forbes, the inaugural ‘Forbes Asia 100 to Watch’ list spotlights notable small companies and startups on the rise across the Asia-Pacific region. At a time when economies worldwide are struggling due to the pandemic, these agile companies are on a growth path. Their inclusion in the list comes in part from addressing problems such as improving transportation in congested cities, expanding affordable connectivity in remote regions and preventing food waste, it said.
The lively startup communities in India and Singapore produced 22 and 19 companies respectively while mainland China has just four.
Methodology
Forbes Asia solicited online submissions, and invited accelerators, incubators, SME advocacy organisations, universities, venture capitalists and others to nominate companies as well. The final 100 was selected from over 900 submissions. Companies had to be headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region, be at least one year old, privately owned, for profit, and have no more than $20 million in its latest annual revenue.
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