Startups

Keriton wins big at #SXSW: ‘I want to dedicate this award to Philadelphia’

The breast milk management startup beat out 150 other companies at the South by Southwest Impact Pediatric Health Pitch Competition.

Founder Vidur Bhatnagar and his sister Vidushi, inspiration for the company, after the competition. (Courtesy photo)

As we’ve noted, Philly headed to South by Southwest with a significant presence this year, including Mayor Jim Kenney himself.

And one local health IT company just cashed in from that national exposure: Keriton, the makers of a breast milk management system, beat out 150 other startups to win the top prize in the Digital Health portion of the Impact Pediatric Health pitch competition.

Philly’s health IT scene is no stranger to SXSW awards: in 2015, BioBots won “Most Innovative.” 

What did the Dreamit grad startup, founded by Penn graduate student Vidur Bhatnagar win? $15,000 and meetings with eight children’s hospitals across U.S.

Landing the win earned Bhatnagar some social media praise from the Philly camp at SXSW, including StartUp PHL’s Archna Sahay:

Over the phone from California, where he was pitching Keriton to Stanford’s pediatrics hospital, Bhatnagar told Technical.ly that taking the main prize was a humbling experience.

“The judges for both the qualifying and final rounds were top pediatric clinicians and hospital executives from eight leading hospitals,” said Bhatnagar. “That’s a great validation of the product that Keriton is trying to bring to the market.”

The competition was fierce, said the Indian native and former SAP India employee.

“At some point I thought, ‘These [other] guys are winning for sure,’ but the reason we won is that we’re solving a real world problem,” he said.

The engineer received the award flanked by his sister Vidushi Bhatnagar, the inspiration for the Keriton platform: Vidushi’s baby was born three weeks prematurely and was unable to breastfeed while the baby recovered from having fluid in her lungs.

“It was very special having her there with me,” the founder said. “It goes to show you how startups can really me make a diference in a real world problem.”

Before hanging up, Bhatnagar asked us to include a verbatim statement and thank, by name, a few community members.

Just this one time, Vidur!

“I want to dedicate this award to the city of Philadelphia,” the founder said. “I’m happy to call Philly our home because the entire community has been so supportive specially folks like Penn Medicine, Penn Engineering, Wharton, IBX, BioAdvance, Ben Franklin Technology PartnersDreamit, DormRoomFund, the Mayor’s Office, Philly Startup Leaders and StartUp PHL. This is a reflection of a Philadelphia company winning at a global stage.”

Companies: Keriton

Before you go...

Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.

3 ways to support our work:
  • Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
  • Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
  • Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
The journalism fund Preferred partners Our services
Engagement

Join our growing Slack community

Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!

Trending

16 places to responsibly dispose of old electronics in Philadelphia

19 tech and entrepreneurship events to check out before the holidays

Expect high-speed internet at 100 Philly rec centers in 2025, Verizon says

Are digital navigators the answer to closing Philadelphia’s tech gap?

Technically Media