A Big Leap

A young start-up's portable and battery-run cooling device enters the exclusive WHO pre-qualification club

- • Bunty Thoidingjam

When two young men set up Blackfrog Technologies in Manipal, a small coastal town in Karnataka, in 2015, they had no idea the impact it would have just a few years later. With Emvólio, the medical devices startup introduced a world-class portable refrigerator, which has proved crucial for immunisation across remote Indian hamlets and even Africa. It provides a platform for the last-mile delivery of vaccines and other biologicals like blood and serums. This device maintains a preset temperature for up to 12 hours, reducing the economic cost of wasted vaccines. To address the need for efficient vaccine storage and transportation, Blackfrog transitioned from a prototype design house to a manufacturing company under founders Mayur Shetty and Donson D Souza.

Humble Beginnings

Shetty was always fascinated with machines. And at Little Rock Indian School, where he met his close friend D Souza, it only grew. By the time the duo entered Manipal Institute of Technology, engineering felt less like a career decision and more like destiny. Like all engineers, they were nearly caught by the Bengaluru net. But questioning the need to leave their hometown, they made Manipal their base. The turning point for Blackfrog was in 2017, when Dr Arun Shanbhag, chief innovation officer at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, sparked the idea of a battery-powered, portable medical refrigerator.