How This Tech Startup Drew the Attention of Gavi, Gates and Google

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Google.org has announced a new partnership to support Nexleaf Analytics, a Los Angeles-based startup that builds wireless sensors turning everyday objects like refrigerators and cookstoves into connected devices.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is matching a $2 million contribution from Google.org, through a matching fund from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is a pool of money set aside by donors to match partnerships Gavi has with the private sector. This support of Nexleaf results in part from INFUSE, an accelerator Gavi launched to support “Innovation for Uptake, Scale and Equity in Immunization.”*

Nexleaf builds wireless sensor devices and data analytics tools such as ColdTrace, a wireless remote temperature monitoring technology that protects vaccines, and StoveTrace, a cloud based remote monitoring system that monitors the use of improved cookstoves. With funding from this new partnership, Nexleaf will now develop an analytics framework, gathering data from the countries its technology reaches, in order to share data with other governments looking to make evidence-based decisions regarding vaccine delivery.

“We focus on: How do you get vaccines safely to kids, stored at the right temperatures, fixing problems with refrigerators along the way?” Nithya Ramanathan, president and co-founder of Nexleaf, told Devex. “Everybody brings their piece of the puzzle and what we bring is data.”

Source: Devex (link opens in a new window)

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