Airbus Teams Up Two Indian Startups Accelerated Under Airbus BizLab

In an attempt to support the government’s Make In India and Startup India initiatives, France-headquartered aeronautical products maker Airbus has signed contracts with two Indian startups: Neewee and EFLIGHT. Both of these startups were accelerated under Airbus BizLab in January 2017.

The startups were selected in the second cohort of the accelerator programme, out of 137 applications from nine countries. According to reports, the Neewee and EFLIGHT have signed their first contracts with Airbus and its subsidiary NAVBLUE.

Commenting on the association, Bruno Gutierres, head of Airbus BizLab, said, “We are delighted to announce the recent contracts signed by Neewee and EFLIGHT. These partnerships stand as an example of our commitment towards engaging with the entrepreneurial community and creating business opportunities for them, especially with Airbus.”

With this, the solutions developed by both startups will now be integrated with Airbus and NAVBLUE. ProcuSense, created by Neewee, uses advanced analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to ascertain manufacturing supply chain and procurement operations at Airbus.

On the other hand, EFLIGHT created a trip support solution to offer a comprehensive suite of services that allows business jet pilots to optimise plans for fuel, time, route and weather. EFLIGHT also signed an exclusive partnership with an Airbus subsidiary to jointly address some opportunities in India.

Addressing the newly-forged association, Siddharth Balachandran, Airbus BizLab Leader – India, said, “The startup ecosystem in India is one of the fastest growing ecosystems in the world. We are excited to partner with two of our BizLab alumni. Both Neewee and EFLIGHT are unique solutions that have the potential to provide significant and long-term benefits to not only Airbus but other big and small businesses on a global scale. The roadmap for the future includes implementing Neewee’s analytics solution in other Airbus functions globally.”

More About Airbus BizLab

Originally established in Toulouse, France in March 2015, Airbus BizLab works as a global aerospace business accelerator and provides facilities in Hamburg (Germany) and Bengaluru. Under the programme, startups and Airbus “intrapreneurs” (internal entrepreneurs) work together to speed up transforming their innovative ideas into valuable businesses.

The company offers support to early-stage startup with its six-month acceleration programme. Under the acceleration programme, startups can access Airbus coaches, technical and business experts and mentors in various domains, free hosting, and a Demo Day with Airbus decision makers, venture capitalists, Airbus customers, and partners.

In the second cohort of the accelerator programme, which kicked off in January 2017, Airbus BizLab selected six startups including Neewee and EFLIGHT. The programme supported innovative startups in the fields of robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, image processing, VR/AR, fintech, supply chain, door-to-door mobility (passenger experience), gaming, aviation products and services, drones, manufacturing, airport management, space technologies and solutions.

Airbus, along with senior professionals, mentored the startups to build solutions that enhanced to meet the needs of industry as well as Airbus.

Also, in July 2017, Airbus BizLab partnered with Airbus Ventures to set up a fund for aerospace and non-aerospace tech startups in India.

With a corpus of $150 Mn, Airbus Ventures has reportedly poured money into 13 startups in Israel, Japan, Europe, and North America. Airbus Ventures also invests in up-and-coming startups in domains like electric and renewable power, IoT, autonomous vehicles, and cybersecurity.

The Airbus BizLab-accelerated startups with their innovative ideas will provide Airbus with manufacturing, procurement and planning solutions that will, in turn, help the company scale up its operations.