Maruti Suzuki Seeks Participation From Startups For Third Cohort of MAIL Programme

India’s leading automobile manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, has been doing its share to support India’s startup ecosystem through its Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) programme. After accelerating and incubating five startups, the company, on Wednesday, announced the launch of the third cohort for its MAIL programme.

Initially launched in January 2019, the MAIL programme identifies and brings together startups with innovative and cutting-edge solutions and collaborates with them for bringing innovation in the areas of connected cars, shared mobility, autonomous cars, electric vehicle, and its infrastructure etc.

For the third cohort of the MAIL programme, the company is accepting applications from startups working in the automobility space till November 30, 2019.

Selected startups will get the support and guidance for their growth as part of a three -month acceleration period from Maruti Suzuki. The selected startups will be mentored by automobile experts from India as well as from the global startup ecosystem.

Further, startups will get a chance to test the feasibility of the developed mobility solution across the testbeds of Maruti Suzuki’s showrooms, workshops, logistics, engineering among others.

At the end of the cohort programme, winners will be granted with proofs-of-concept (POCs) from Maruti Suzuki for the live use case and even a possibility of real-time implementation of the solutions offered by the startups.

In addition to Maruti Suzuki, the MAIL programme is also supported by Green House Ventures (GHV) Accelerator. Founded in 2014, GHV works with Indian startups who are looking to enter the international market. It also works with Japanese corporates to help ease their Indian expansion and connect them to startups in the country.

Speaking on the launch of the third cohort, Kenichi Ayukawa, managing director and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited said that MAIL program acts as a catalyst and provides the selected startups with a platform to translate their ideas into implementable solutions.

Five Deeptech Startups Chosen For MAIL’s First Cohort

While the second cohort of the MAIL is underway, the company had selected the winners for its first cohort last month. The three startups selected by Maruti Suzuki and GHV for its first MAIL cohort programme emerged from a pool of five ventures competing in the final round.

The winners’ list included deeptech startups — Belgaum-based SenseGiz, Gurugram-based Xane.AI, and Hyderabad-based Eyedentify. While SenseGiz develops enterprise IoT products and services for tracking, warehousing, perimeter monitoring and other security applications, Xane.AI helps businesses conduct surveys through conversations, rather than typical survey forms, using its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.

The third winner, Eyedentify works towards eliminating safety concerns for fleet operators and logistics companies. The startup leverages automotive IoT for vehicle tracking, live video surveillance of vehicle interiors and real-time driver monitoring for safety.