MG Motor India finalises 5 Indian startups for 'MG Drives Innovation' program

British carmaker MG Motor's (Morris Garages) Indian arm MG Motor India has finalised 5 Indian startups under its innovation program, 'MG Drives Innovation' to bring additional synergies to its automotive business.

MG Motor India has joined hands with TiE Delhi, a non-profit association that mentors startup founders, to launch the program. The selected startups are CarIQ, Steradian Semi, Altigreen Propulsion Labs, Exploride, and Zuper.

The five startups will be showcased at the MG Innovation Lounge at TiEcon New Delhi on December 15 and 16, 2017. The company will also host a ‘Mentoring Garage’, wherein startups with relevant solutions can get feedback and advice from the leadership team.

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MG Motor India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba said, "As part of MG's commitment to build a culture of constant innovation, we are open to exploring various opportunities for collaborating with any technology startup that brings additional synergies to our business."

Earlier, MG Motor India received over 200 applications from startups. Among all the solutions offered by these tech startups, the telematics category garnered the highest submissions at 15 per cent. This was followed by augmented reality, virtual reality & mixed reality (AR/VR/MR) at 9 per cent and electric vehicles at 8 per cent.

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The company had announced their “MG Drives Innovation” program, designed to identify, nurture and support the best in auto-tech and mobility solutions on 16th November 2017.

A brief detail of the 5 startups selected for MG Motor India innovation program

CarIQ: Incepted in 2013, the platform uses the robust Microsoft Azure Cloud and is capable of handling tens of thousands of cars. The platform receives data from multiple sources via the Data Aggregator layer, where it is transformed and consumed by the platform.

Steradian: A Bengaluru-based fabless semiconductor company developing CMOS Millimeter wave products for radars. It was founded in January 2016 by Gireesh Rajendran, Sivadas, Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Lachhwani and Alok Joshi.

Altigreen Propulsion Labs: Founded in 2013. a Bengaluru-based niche startup, which provides technology-enabled solutions for electric and hybrid powertrains.

Exploride: Incubated by Startup Village Kerala, Exploride was started by Sunil Vallath in June 2015. It is a futuristic hands-free heads up display for cars controlled with gesture and voice control substituting the needs of multiple devices for maps, car infotainment systems and smartphones while driving.

Zuper: An enterprise field workforce management platform based on IoT, Big Data, AI and cloud services.

Last month US-based Nexus’s incubator selected four Indian startups (CleanLife, White Cub, RoadBounce, and VCP) under its incubation programme where it will nurture and scale up their business.

The report was first published in News18.