Maruti Suzuki join hands with IIT Bombay for start-up innovation programs

India's largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki India has signed an MoU with Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay to expand the reach of its innovation programmes for start-ups. As part of the three-year MoU, SINE will support in outreach and incubation of potential start-ups who can be part of Maruti Suzuki’s innovation programmes, the company has said.

Maruti Suzuki and SINE will jointly shortlist start-ups for some of the complex business problems identified by the company. They will together screen applications, organise workshops with mentors, industry experts and investors, the company added. After thorough validation, selected start-ups will get an opportunity to present their solutions at a demo day.

“At a recent event Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged corporates to engage with start-ups in a focused manner and benefit mutually by collaborating. He convincingly said that by joining hands with young start-ups, established industry players can create an ecosystem of innovation and manufacturing in the country and bring glory to India in the world of start-ups. Our efforts to engage start-ups align with Hon’ble Prime Minister’s mantra of ‘Sabka Prayas’ to make India a global manufacturing hub. Our tie-up with IIT Bombay is an effort in this direction,” Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India said.

Set up in 2004, SINE IIT Bombay is one of the earliest incubators in academia with a potential to create start-ups focusing on economic growth, strategic value, and social relevance. It gives prototyping grants, provides incubation support to tech start-ups, and runs accelerator programs in corporate partnership.

Poyni Bhatt, CEO, Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at IIT Bombay said, “It is a great honour for SINE to partner with India’s leading passenger vehicle manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki. We are excited to partner with Maruti Suzuki and by leveraging our combined strengths, we are set to enable start-ups with innovative solutions to scale to the next level.”

Aligned to Government’s ‘Start-up India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives, Maruti Suzuki’s Innovation programs engage with start-ups at different stages of maturity. These programs are, Incubation, Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL), and Mobility Challenge. So far, the company has engaged with 54 start-ups and enabled 27 Proof-of-Concepts and has already onboarded 10 start-ups as its business partners.