Maruti Suzuki calls for entries from startups for its fourth MAIL cohort

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) has announced that it has called for applications from startups for the fourth cohort under its Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) initiative. MSIL said it will engage with nine startup firms selected in the previous three rounds of MAIL program.

Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and CEO, MSIL said: “The Indian startup community is working on bright technology ideas which can help the automobile industry. Our MAIL initiative is aligned with the Company’s spirit to collaborate and innovate. Our experience with startups in the first three cohorts is very encouraging and together we are moving towards technology-led solutions for our business. MAIL program is aimed at tapping early-stage startups and help them to convert their innovative ideas into ground-breaking solutions. We look forward to more disruptive ideas in our fourth cohort of MAIL.”

In the first three cohorts, the best 25 firms from each cohort were invited for the next round. The third cohort is still on and a total of nine startups were selected from the first two cohorts of MAIL program. Under the MAIL program, applications are invited from startups working in the areas of mobility and automobile space.

The winners get an opportunity to undertake paid proof of concept (POC) with Maruti Suzuki to develop business solutions for any live use case. The teams will get opportunity of real time implementation of the solutions offered. Currently, seven POCs are underway in MSIL.

Maruti Suzuki has partnered with GHV Accelerator – an Indo-Japanese early stage seed fund – to identify and address the early-stage startups with innovative, practical and customer-oriented solutions. The participating startups will be provided with an opportunity to turn their innovative ideas into practical disruptive solutions and showcase their entrepreneurial capabilities.