About S4S Technologies
S4S Technologies, a multi-award-winning organisation, has developed a comprehensive platform for agri-food processing, addressing the intricate challenges of food waste while promoting sustainability and gender equality in rural areas.
Central to S4S’ mission are patented, cost-effective, solar-powered conduction dryers, which offer rural communities, particularly women, an alternative to other more expensive methods of conventional industrial food preservation. S4S’ dryers maintain nutrition levels of 85%-99%—at up to 45% lower costs compared to traditional dryers. The organisation also supports its farmer-entrepreneurs in converting preserved waste into value-added food products and provides them with market linkages to buyers.
S4S currently supports approximately 3,00,000 women small farmers, partners with 2,000 women entrepreneurs*, and prevents 40,000 tons of food loss annually, serving around 20 sustainably produced food products to over 1,100 F&B brands.
*Source: The EarthShot Prize
S4S Technologies at MIF’s Scale-Up
Scale-Up supported S4S in improving manufacturing capacity, human resource efficiencies, quality processes, B2C sales, and packaging. This not only expanded revenue, but customer complaints dropped to zero, the shelf life of farm produce rose by 4x, and brand recall and awareness increased among farmers. In its first year at MIF’s no-equity accelerator, S4S also successfully pivoted away from a B2C business model and swiftly onboarded three major B2B clients.
In 2020, experts at Scale-Up leveraged their networks to help S4S optimise procurements through improved tracking, analytics, and finance management. This resulted in 7% procurement savings in just 10 months. S4S also became eligible for direct and indirect tax benefits, including a 5% duty drawback on exports.
In-depth support received by S4S at Scale-Up also resulted in the organisation rolling out new product lines, developing compliance frameworks, establishing a robust supply chain, and setting up a new fulfilment centre from scratch.
S4S Technologies graduated from Scale-Up in 2023, shortly after crossing the INR 100 crore annual revenue mark for the first time. In its four years at Scale-Up, it received in-depth mentorship from industry leaders and experts from Marico Ltd, including Chairman Harsh Mariwala, Head of New Product Development and Co-Manufacturing Operations Manu Madhavan, Head of Finance (India Business) Amit Aggarwal, Works Head (Ahmedabad) Manufacturing Vaibhav Kulkarni, and Manager Corporate Secretarial (Finance) Bony Rai.
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