While some companies choose to focus exclusively on disasters, others choose to extend a current product for use in disasters
Recent announcements of positive early results from COVID-19 vaccine trials remind us how much our society depends on research, science, and technology to foster a safe environment for everyone. Technology’s potential in safeguarding lives and livelihoods goes beyond pandemics and spans other forms of natural hazards as well.
If macroeconomic forecasts are an indication, technology to promote disaster resilience and recovery can be a huge potential market. In Asia alone, COVID-19 is expected to cause US$ 2.7 trillion in lost output for 2020-2021, while average losses across a range of hazards is estimated at US$ 675 billion annually. Disaster resilience and recovery also touches upon several UN Sustainable Development Goals, namely No Poverty, Good Health and Well-Being, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Climate Action, and Partnerships.
With growing investor demand for ESG (environmental, social, governance) investments — assets have grown 14% annually from 2014 to reach US$31 trillion in 2018 — such tech investments offer opportunities to support profitable, high-growth business, while providing sustainable social and environmental benefits.
New and meaningful concept
D-Tech (Disaster Tech) is defined as technology solutions that save lives before, during, and after natural disaster events. In our discussions and interviews with potential funders ranging from philanthropic funds, corporate foundations, family offices, to VCs, there was little doubt that although D-Tech is a very new concept, it solves impactful and meaningful problems and deserves more attention.
Fong Jek Gan, Founding and Managing Partner at Jubilee Capital Management, commented, “It is very good that we are trying to reduce the risk of natural disaster events with technology as an enabler. Personally, I hope that there will be more integration of social good when it comes to making investment decisions.”
Some have commented that D-Tech today is similar to micro-financing or cybersecurity in its infancy, requiring much patient capital and market education to grow. John Sharp, Partner at Hatcher+, commented, “D-Tech is similar to cybersecurity in that it’s preventative and the benefits are not immediately clear. In cybersecurity, some wait until their systems are hacked before they invest. D-Tech may also need to embark on a similar journey to educate the market.”
Disasters as a new use case
As the needs arising from natural disaster events are wide and varied, many of today’s technologies can find a use case in disasters and be called D-Tech. Fong Jek Gan commented, “D-Tech is an interesting topic as it opens up a new scenario to apply technology — e.g. before, during, or after a natural disaster.”
If we consider some of the latest and hottest technologies such as drones (whether for delivery or aerial surveillance purposes), 3D printing, crowd-sourced real-time mapping, off-grid energy solutions, etc., we can see that they can all be used for natural disaster response.
While some companies choose to focus exclusively on disasters, others choose to extend a current product for use in disasters. For example, in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Facebook introduced the “disaster message board”, which was later officially launched as the “Safety Check” tool in October 2014. Kenya-based open-source software company Ushahidi branched out from monitoring Kenyan elections to visualising complex natural disaster situations. BioLite, a start-up specializing in outdoor stoves and off-grid energy for camping, began selling disaster prep kits.
Read more: VCs get behind Disaster Tech in search for innovative life-saving technologies
SAFE STEPS D-Tech Awards calling for start-ups in D-Tech
Seeing the potential to use technology to save lives in natural disaster events, Prudence Foundation is launching the second edition of the SAFE STEPS D-Tech Awards to find, fund, and support technology solutions that aim to protect and save lives before, during, or after natural disaster events. The Awards is part of SAFE STEPS, a mass awareness programme that provides lifesaving tips on natural disaster events, road safety and first aid and is one of Prudence Foundation’s flagship community investment programmes.
The Awards is supported by Humanitarian Partner the International Federation of Red Cross, and Red Crescent Societies and Technology Partner Lenovo. Other strategic partners include the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), Antler, e27, Hatcher+, Jubilee Capital Management and National Geographic.
Participating organisations of the SAFE STEPS D-Tech Awards stand a chance to win grants from a pool of US$ 200,000 to support the implementation and scaling of their technology. Additionally, they will have access to expert coaching from Lenovo, Antler, Hatcher+ and Jubilee Capital Management, as well as pitching and networking opportunities with humanitarian experts, VC fund managers, fellow tech entrepreneurs, and social enterprise developers.
Startups keen on building a resilient, disaster-proof future are invited to participate in the SAFE STEPS D-Tech Awards. Both for-profits and not-for-profits are welcome to apply and will be judged separately. Applications are open now until 19 February 2021. For more details about the competition, please visit here.
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Prudence Foundation.
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