IIMA Ventures Picks 14 Startups For Its Indore Smart City Accelerator Programme

IIMA Ventures (formerly IIMA-CIIE) has announced its support for 14 startups from Indore in its first Cohort of the Indore Smart City Accelerator programme. 

The cohort aims to coach startups in developing business models and proposals required to engage with public sector customers, IIMA Ventures said in a statement.

It also aims to assist early-stage startups building for urban local bodies (ULBs) in landing pilots to validate their solutions.

During the initial phase, IIMA received over 100 applications from several startups with potential to find innovative solutions for the Indore Smart City in sectors related to urban mobility, cleanliness, citizen safety and security, and air quality.

The startups were selected on the basis of a three-day bootcamp held in Indore where they were trained in various sessions like business modelling, unit economics, B2G sales, applying for government tenders, and investment readiness by angel investors. The startups were also offered one-to-one mentorship with subject matter experts.

Three startups were shortlisted for pilots by Indore Smart City, which includes Aumsat Technologies, Arc Robotics and Pod Pitara.

Aumsat Technologies: Founded by Riddhish Soni, Ex-ISRO, the team has developed a solution to detect leakages in water pipelines, pinpointing locations up to 10 feet underground using IoT-based solutions and satellite imagery. This innovation aims to reduce non-revenue water losses from an estimated 40% to 15%.

Arc Robotics: The young team of engineers has developed a vehicle-mounted robot with six degrees of freedom to detect and clean sewage pipelines to eliminate manual scavenging in India.

Pod Pitara: The team has tied up with the Indore administration to install IoT-enabled radios across public buses in the city as an experiment to help ULBs disseminate important city-related updates and awareness among the citizens of Indore.

Besides, another startup Electia has received an undisclosed amount of funding through one of its regional ecosystem programmes. The startup claims to have developed an automated battery-swapping solution specifically positioned towards creating a battery-swapping infrastructure in tier II and III cities. 

Apart from that, two startups from the cohort will also be considered for grants up to INR 5 Lakh. However, IIMA did not reveal the details of the other startups selected under this programme. 

Founded in 2002 as an entrepreneurship centre at IIM Ahmedabad, IIMA Ventures (Formerly IIMA-CIIE) is the innovation continuum that studies, educates, incubates, accelerates and invests in early stage startups, aspiring entrepreneurs and investors.

The venture claims to have mentored over 7,000 founders and accelerated over 1,500 startups since its inception. It has also backed more than 700 startups.