INDIANAPOLIS (May 15, 2023) — AgriNovus Indiana, an initiative to grow the state’s agbioscience economy, announced today that Elevance Health, Shipt, AT&T and TechPoint will support the 2023 HungerTech Innovation Challenge – a four-week accelerator to create tech-enabled businesses that connect food-insecure populations to for-profit and not-for-profit food networks.
Presented by Elevance Health, 18 teams are competing in this year’s challenge that will award the winning team $25,000 and the second place team $5,000 to accelerate commercialization of their solution. The runner-up prize is co-sponsored by AT&T and TechPoint, a first for both organizations.
“Harnessing the power of innovation to transform how we connect food supply to food demand holds tremendous opportunity to serve those in need,” said Mitch Frazier, president and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana. “Thanks to the support of our sponsors, AgriNovus is able to not only inspire ideation but to provide critical capital to turn the best ideas into action.”
In its second year, the HungerTech Innovation Challenge has attracted innovators ranging from high school students to venture-backed companies with creating tech-enabled food access for hungry populations. Team leaders for the challenge include:
- Festus Ajiboye – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Emily Blyze – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Khushboo Chandnani – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Sanjukta Choudhary – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Katherine Clayton – San Francisco, Cal.
- Jim Conklin – South Bend, Ind.
- Lisa Harman –Warsaw, Ind.
- Riley Johnson – Fort Wayne, Ind.
- Anusha Malla – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Scott Massey – Evansville, Ind.
- Manali Parab – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Shreyas Patel – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Ritu Harish Salian – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Ami Sanghvi – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Rohan Satya Isaac – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Rijul Saxena – Indianapolis, Ind.
- Sandeep Sirivuri – Fishers, Ind.
- Sahith Uppala – Indianapolis, Ind.
“Having consistent access to nutritious food is an essential part of maintaining one’s health,” said Shantanu Agrawal, M.D., chief health officer at Elevance Health. “Programs like the HungerTech Innovation Challenge are helping create innovations that will better connect hungry households to healthy and accessible foods, which is a great step toward improving overall health outcomes and advancing equity for all.”
The HungerTech Innovation Challenge was informed by an AgriNovus study commissioned by the Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability at Purdue University. Tackling and Solving Food Insecurity with Private Sector Innovations identified the need for new technologies to drive connectivity between food access and populations experiencing food insecurity.
AgriNovus will announce the winners of the 2023 HungerTech Innovation Challenge in June. Learn more about AgriNovus Indiana’s work on combatting food insecurity at www.AgriNovusIndiana.com/HungerTech.
About AgriNovus Indiana
AgriNovus Indiana is a non-profit coalition of leaders across industry, academia and government focused on growing Indiana’s agbioscience economy across food, animal health, plant science and agtech. AgriNovus Indiana is part of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP), an effort dedicated to the region’s continued prosperity and growth. Learn more at www.AgriNovusIndiana.com.
