These hardware & systems startups are part of Plugin, a unique collaborative incubation program between Intel India, Department of Science &Technology (DST), and SINE IIT-Bombay

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Intel India hosted Intel India Maker Lab: Start-up Conclave and Demo Day at theBengaluru campus, where 12start-ups from the Plugin Program showcased their products and solutions. Announcedlast year, Plugin is a unique collaborative incubation program between Intel India, Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT-Bombay, and Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, aimed at addressing challenges faced by hardware companies in product development and commercialization, ultimately helping them in their concept to product journey.

As part of the initiative, these startups leveraged the incubation facilities and mentoring resources at Intel India Maker Lab in Bengaluru and SINE, IIT, Bombay to develop products in the areas of transportation, smart home, industrial automation, healthcare, and entertainment across key technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Internet of Things (IOT), and Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR). Out of these 12 startups, fourhave market-ready products, five have completed product development andthreehave proof-of-concepts ready.

During the Program, the startups received access to state-of-the-art labs, mentorship from 50+ technology and business experts, technology platforms from Intel India and SINE-IIT Bombay and had opportunities to network with a wide range of ecosystem players like accelerators and VCs.

Speaking on the occasion, Jitendra Chaddah, Senior Director, Strategic Development & Operations,Intel India said, “Intel India has been at the forefront of amplifying hardware and systems innovation & entrepreneurship in India. It’s tremendously gratifying to see these startups from the second batch of Intel India Maker Lab showcasing exciting products and solutions that are relevant for the society.”

“Moreover, the collaboration with DST and SINE, IIT-Bombay in this journey has been hugely enriching and I am confident these experiences will help us enable more such success stories,” he added.

Dr. Anita Gupta, Director and Associate Head Innovation and Entrepreneurship, DST, Government of India,  said, “The Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Intel India have been collaborating over ten years in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in India. Furthering that commitment, we started the Plugin Program, a first-of-its-kind government-industry-academia collaborative initiative for hardware and systems startups, last year. It’s truly exciting to see the first batch of very promising startups coming out of this initiative with most of them having their products ready across key technology areas like IOT, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality.”

Poyni Bhatt, CEO of SINE, IIT-Bombay, said: “Plugin is a very unique industry-government-academia collaborative incubation program, one year long, with a focus on product acceleration and early customer validation for hardware and systems startups. Most start-ups in the first batch are ready with their products, and many are in customer engagement, which validates the value of the program.”