Tuesday
August 11
2020

VCs Get Behind Disaster Tech in Search for Innovative Life-Saving Technologies

By Samantha Cheh

The COVID-19 pandemic is driving unprecedented interest into ESG investing, for reasons including business risk preparedness, portfolio diversification, protecting local communities, and more. Companies that can play life-saving roles in natural disasters and directly strengthen the resilience of communities may stand to benefit.

We already see technology being used to track, trace and reduce COVID-19’s impact. In broader natural disasters, companies are coming up with innovative disaster tech or “D-tech” solutions. These can vary from Google’s early flood warning system in India and the Red Cross’s disaster notification and first aid app, to startups such as one concern, an AI platform for predicting earthquakes and floods, and Field Ready, a manufacturing company that specialises in 3d printing kits of essential medical devices deployed in refugee camps.

Photo courtesy of Anna Shvets.

Source: e27 (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Coronavirus, Health Care, Technology
Tags
global development, refugees, startups