Kheyti, a Hyderabad-based start-up, has won a prestigious award along with a cash price of $ 42,850 thousand in a MassChallenge contest that was held in Israel.

The event witnessed a participation of over 500 countries from 40 different countries. Kheyti, along with a start-up from Israel were chosen as the ‘diamond winners’ of this year’s contest.

Kheyti, has won the award for developing an affordable modular greenhouse that aims to give farmers a steady and dependable income.

The start-up was chosen among the top ten finalists before pitching for the title with the Israeli start-up. Another Indian start-up that was chosen for the top ten was Sukriti, a start-up that developed a smart toilet cabin employing hygiene maintenance systems to enhance user experience in sanitation.

“We design, adapt and implement low-cost farming solutions that help small farmers increase yield and predictability of produce. We combine these technologies with end-to-end support to give these farmers a seamless path towards income increase,” the team of Kheyti said in its presentation.

According to a source, India’s Ambassador to Israel Pavan Kapoor said, “I am very happy that two Indian start-ups made it to the top ten for Masschalenge awards and one of them, Kheyti, bagged the honours.”

“This should motivate and encourage more Indian start-ups, especially in the social sector, and lead to further collaboration between India and Israel on this front too,” Kapoor added.

MassChallenge Israel, a star-tup-friendly accelerator, awarded USD 143,000 this week in zero-equity cash prizes to four of the highest-impact startups from its 2017 cohort.

The cash prize winners, along with the ten finalists, will take part in the first MassChallenge Israel US Trek, a curated business trip and introduction to the innovation ecosystems in Boston and New York in November.