ZF plans Innovation Hub in Hyderabad, will accelerate start-up projects

In April 2018, ZF is to officially open its new Innovation Hub in Hyderabad, India. It is already active and partnering with the NASSCOM Center of Excellence – IoT (CoE IoT), a start-up initiative of the national IT industry association NASSCOM and MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology).

As a result, ZF says it is able to network more broadly and closely with the Indian start-up scene. In turn, it benefits from easier access to the expertise of one of the largest automotive suppliers worldwide. On November 9, the Innovation Hub sponsored a pitch event with a first look at ZF’s future start-up involvement on the ground.

“When it comes to contributions to new, disruptive technologies and the development of IT solutions in and outside the mobility industry, India plays an important role,” says Mamatha Chamarthi, chief digital officer at ZF Friedrichshafen AG.

“With the new ZF Innovation Hub in the IT metropolis of Hyderabad, the recent partnership with CoE IoT NASSCOM as the country’s largest pioneer for deep-tech start-ups and the first pitch event, we are underscoring our aspiration to shape digitalisation worldwide. These are important precursors to our Vision Zero Ecosystem, which has mobility with zero accidents and zero emissions as its objective.”

Sanjeev Malhotra, CEO of the NASSCOM Center of Excellence – IoT, adds, “I am delighted to have ZF as a high-tech partner for our initiative. Throughout India it brings together leading automotive industry expertise with pioneering companies and developments for the Internet of Things.”

Starting signal for start-up projects with ZF in India
An initial taste of upcoming activities of the new ZF Innovation Hub was provided on November 9, 2017, in the form of a pitch event in which 12 Indian start-ups took part. They presented their solutions for the topics of electrification and new mobility, big data and analytics, connectivity as well as well as artificial intelligence (AI). In the end, Gayam Motor Works, LightMetrics, Merxius and Cyrrup were declared as the winners with their convincing ideas. Joint teams are now actively working on further developing these ideas.

Also read: ZF to actively engage with start-ups to strengthen tech leadership