Maruti Suzuki and IIM Bangalore all set to incubate mobility startups

On August 20th, India’s largest automobile manufacturer announced its partnership with the startup hub and incubation centre of IIM Bangalore, NSRCEL which is known as Nadathur S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning. The vision of the partnership is to incubate mobility startups and encourage the startups which are working in the field of technological innovations so that creativity can be further put to practical use in the mobility sector.

This is the first time when an initiative of this sort has been taken by a giant automobile manufacturing company to assist small-scale startups to become businesses. Maruti Suzuki and IIM Bangalore are all set to incubate mobility startups with a three month (pre-incubation) and a six-month (incubation) engagement. The incubation mobility startups which are in their early ages will get incubation support along with the prospect of a potential partnership with Maruti Suzuki.

The automobile giant had launched a platform back in January 2019 called MAIL - Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab. This platform helped startups co-create innovative and creative business ideas in the mobility sphere. Maruti Suzuki is bound to have a great lead in all the futuristic solutions being developed under the MAIL initiative. By bringing in technological creativity needed for automobile business to the front, the decision to incubate mobility startups in a partnership with IIM Bangalore shall be very efficient.

As Maruti Suzuki and IIM Bangalore devise to incubate mobility startups, Mr. Kenichi Ayukawa who is the Managing Director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India, said that mobility startup incubation programs address the needs of early-stage startups, which have the potential of becoming large-scale businesses. He added that this particular partnership with IIM Bangalore will bolster innovation in the mobility space. He also stressed on the manner in which the startup community of India provides a massive headstart to our Honorable Prime Minister's vision of Startup India. The tie-up is aimed to nurture the next generation companies that will define future mobility solutions and can make a significant contribution to creating jobs, Ayukawa remarked.

Elaborating on the Maruti Suzuki-IIM Bangalore partnership to incubate mobility startups, Professor Venkatesh Panchapagesan, Chairperson, NSRCEL, said that their mobility programs will provide the startups a hands-on experience, and the practical expertise in the technological field. With the assistance of Maruti Suzuki in their incubation support to small startups, combined with the experience of NSRCEL, the future of technological innovations in the field of mobility sector is bound to reach new limits. Professor Panchapagesan's message to the startups is simple: 'Once you come in, we will do whatever it takes to make you successful.'

The Maruti Suzuki-IIM Bangalore partnership which is on its way to incubate mobility startups will cull out professionals who have knowledge in the technical domains of digital, data and AI/ML in the fields of autonomous mobility, shared mobility, finance, warehousing, block chain, advertisement and loyalty program, connected cars, vehicle diagnostic, and many more.

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