Maruti Suzuki starts accepting entries from startups for its fourth MAIL cohort
The winner of the fourth edition of Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) by Maruti Suzuki will receive an all-expense-paid educational and networking trip to Japan.
Maruti Suzuki on Tuesday started accepting entries from startups for the fourth cohort of its Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) initiative. The company will be accepting entries till May 15, 2020.
In its first two cohorts, nine startups were selected. The third cohort is still under review by the jury. Launched in 2019, the programme has been specially curated for startups working in areas of mobility and automobile.
Speaking about the initiative, Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki, said, “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.”
He added, “MAIL 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.”
The MAIL initiative has mentors like Holger G Weiss (MD and CEO of German Autolabs Venture Partner), Atul Arya (Head of Energy Systems Division at Panasonic), Tsutomu Tsuboi (General Manager at Nagoya Electric Works), and Manji Suzuki (Vice President of Innovation at Denso International).
Maruti Suzuki has partnered with GHV Accelerator as a part of this initiative. GHV is an Indo-Japanese early-stage seed fund, which helps to identify and address the early-stage startups with innovative, practical, and customer-oriented solutions.
With the MAIL initiative, Maruti aims to provide with an opportunity to turn their innovative ideas into practical disruptive solutions and showcase their entrepreneurial capabilities. Winners of the programme will get to collaborate with Maruti Suzuki for a paid project with a possibility of launching the product in the market.
Also, winners stand a chance to win cars like the Ciaz, Dzire, and Ignis.
(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)