Carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, to expand the reach of its –(who decided that it is innovative) programs for start-ups.

As part of the three-year MoU, SINE will support in outreach and incubation of potential start-ups that can be part of Maruti Suzuki’s innovation programs. The duo will jointly shortlist start-ups for some complex business problems identified by the auto company, screen applications, and organise workshops with mentors, industry experts and investors. After thorough validation, selected start-ups will get an opportunity to present their solutions at a demo day. 

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

Hisashi Takeuchi, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of Maruti Suzuki India, said, “At a recent event, 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 could 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 to align 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 the direction.”

Poyni Bhatt, CEO of SINE added, “40 years ago, Maruti Suzuki started its journey with one car, the Maruti 800. Today, it has changed the landscape of the automotive industry. As the industry is set to grow further, it brings many opportunities for budding start-ups. 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 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.