Maruti Suzuki, IIT Bombay Collaborate to Drive Innovation Programmes for Start-Ups

The Maruti Suzuki India Limited, formerly known as Maruti Udyog Limited, Indian automobile manufacturer has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) at IIT Bomaby to expand the reach of its innovation programs for startups.

As part of the three-year MoU, SINE will support in outreach and incubation of potential startups who can be part of Maruti Suzuki’s innovation programs, it added.

As part of the initiative, Maruti Suzuki and SINE will jointly shortlist startups for some of the complex business problems identified by the company.

Established in 2004, SINE IIT Bombay is one of the earliest incubators of academia focused on creating start-ups focusing on economic growth, strategic value and social relevance. It awards prototyping grants, provides incubation support to tech start-ups, and runs accelerator programs in corporate partnership.

SINE CEO Poynni Bhatt said that 40 years ago, Maruti Suzuki started its journey with one car, the Maruti 800 and today it has changed the landscape of the automotive industry.

“As the industry is set to further grow, it brings many opportunities for budding startups. We are excited to partner with Maruti Suzuki and by leveraging our combined strengths, we are set to enable startups with innovative solutions to scale to the next level,” she added.

 “Our efforts to engage startups are aligned with the 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,” said Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India.

Aligned with the Government’s ‘Start-up India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives, Maruti Suzuki runs three innovation programs to engage with start-ups at different stages of maturity— Incubation, Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) and Mobility Challenge.

To date, it has engaged with 54 start-ups and enabled 27 Proofs-of-Concept. The company has already onboarded 10 start-ups as its business partners.

Also Read: 65,861 Recognized Startups in India, a sharp increase from 726 in 2016: Govt.