Airbus signs up Indian startups to push 'Make In India'

In January last year, Bizlab had selected six Indian companies for the second season of its six-month programme in Bengaluru.

Airbus and its subsidiary Navblue on Thursday announced signing contracts with two Indian startups — Neewee and Eflight — for providing solutions to the European plane maker’s manufacturing programmes that are also in line with the Indian government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Startup India’ initiatives.

In January last year, Airbus Bizlab had selected six Indian companies for the second season of its six-month programme in Bengaluru. BizLab offers the selected startups access to Airbus coaches and to business and technical experts, mentors, in various domains.

The BizLab campus in Bengaluru is the first of its kind outside Europe and only the third after Toulouse, France, and Hamburg, Germany. Airbus BizLab is a global aerospace business accelerator where startups and Airbus intrapreneurs try to transform ideas into concrete valuable businesses.

“Neewee’s solution, called procuSense, will enhance certainty to manufacturing supply chain and procurement operations at Airbus, using advanced analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence,” Airbus said in a statement.

The statement added, “Eflight’s trip support solution will offer a comprehensive suite of services that allows business jet pilots to optimise plans for fuel, time, route, and weather. The startup has also signed an exclusive partnership with an Airbus subsidiary to jointly address some opportunities in India”.

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”.

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.”