Maruti, IIM Bangalore announce winners of incubation program

Maruti Suzuki India and Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), the start-up hub at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), have announced the winners of 1st Cohort of Maruti Suzuki Incubation Program.

The three Bangalore-based startups – True Assistive, eShipz and Hycube Works – emerged as the winner, 1st runner-up, and 2nd runner up respectively. They will now get an opportunity to undertake a paid ‘Proof-of-Concept’ with Maruti Suzuki for actual business use of their technologies.

Anand Sri Ganesh, COO, NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore said, “The early-stage startups which were a part of the program brought about unique solutions through high-risk disruptive technologies. We are happy to work alongside Maruti Suzuki to extend a dynamic innovation environment to these startups. The program also helped startups cultivate skill sets to equip them to create highly scalable mobility solutions. We are excited to nurture many more futuristic solutions in the next cohort.”

Out of 400 applications, 7 startups were selected for the 6-month incubation journey. Before this, the participants went through a 3-month launchpad phase during which they engaged in various sessions, workshops, peer-to-peer learning activities and received regular one-on-one mentoring and advisory sessions. The domain experts at

Maruti Suzuki also mentored and guided the startups to create the right product fit.  The selection panel with experts from Maruti Suzuki and NSRCEL evaluated the applicants and interviewed over 120 entrepreneurs.

The 7 startups and their domains that pitched their co-created solution to management were True Assistive (assistive tech for differently-abled), eShipz (multi courier enterprise shipping solution), Hycube Works (automotive grade 3D printing technology), ValetEZ (smart parking management solution), Blinkin  (AR/VR based remote diagnostics), Vecros (drone -based solutions) and Kuldew, (car rental marketplace).      

With this, IIMB-NSRCEL and Maruti Suzuki India have also announced the launch of the 2nd Cohort of their incubation program and are inviting applications from  startups that are early-stage, technology-led and want to work in the mobility space.