5 Bengaluru Schoolgirls Develop App & Win Global Technovation Challenge in US

Every year, Technovation challenges girls across the globe to build a mobile app that will address a community problem.

Technovation Challenge is the largest technology competition in the world organized in partnership with Adobe Foundation, CA Technologies, Google, Verizon, United Nations Women, UNESCO, and MIT Media Lab, which aims to inspire the next generation of young women entrepreneurs.

This year, nearly 400 apps were submitted to Technovation from 28 countries. Ten finalists were shortlisted from Brazil, India, Mexico, Nigeria and the US, whose teams went to the US, to pitch their apps to an audience of tech professionals and judges from Yahoo, Google, Hackbright Academy and the Salesforce.com Foundation.

Team Pentechan consisting of five Bengaluru girls – Sanjana Vasanth, N. Anupama, Mahima Mehendale, Swasthi P. Rao, and B. Navyashree, all aged 14, beat 400 other teams, with their app Sellixo, which happens to be an online marketplace to sell and buy dry waste.

According to Team Pentechan, India dumps about 5.6 million tons of trash a year. The idea is that small business owners and residents can post their dry waste for sale and make a profit, rather than throwing away readily recyclable dry waste. This will help reduce the environmental pollution and will be a source of income for them too.

Their victory came with $10,000 in prize money. More importantly, they impressed the entire world and made our country proud.

The girls said that they were inspired by the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign, Digital India, and Save the Girl Child initiative and always wanted to work on ‘a challenge like this.’

The girls have already set their eyes on the app’s future. They are also planning to add more features to the app and eventually want it to be converted to various mobile platforms.

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