Hyderabad: Kheyti, a city-based agritech start-up founded with the objective of reducing the impact of climate change on smallholder farmers, has received a prestigious environmental prize for its project ‘Greenhouse-in-a-Box’, a low-cost modular greenhouse bundled with services that help farmers increase yields, protect yields from climate risk, and make farming more environmentally sustainable.
Kheyti was one of five start-ups to win the Earthshot Prize, which Prince William launched in 2020. Kheyti, which was founded in 2015 by Saumya, Sathya Raghu Mokkappati, Kaushik Kappagantula, and Ayush Sharma, will receive £1 million as part of the prize, as well as support from the Earthshot Prize Global Alliance, a global network of philanthropies, non-governmental organisations, and private sector businesses that will assist in scaling their solution.
The Earthshot Prize Council selected the winning start-ups after a rigorous 10-month selection process from over 1,000 nominations. Five Prize winners were chosen from among global innovators who developed solutions in five categories. Kheyti was the winner in the 'Protect and Restore Nature' category.
The Earthshot Prize Council includes members such as Prince William, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, broadcaster and author Sir David Attenborough, business executive Indra Nooyi, Chinese business magnate and co-founder of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma, among others.
