Maruti Suzuki India announced that the sixth round of its Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) programme is now accepting applications.  Participation is open to early-stage startups in the mobility and automobile industries.

The winning startups will be given the opportunity to conduct a paid Proof of Concept (PoC) with the company.  These chosen startups will be closely mentored by industry experts from the domestic and international startup ecosystems.

Furthermore, the participating startups will be given the opportunity to turn their innovative ideas into practical and disruptive solutions, as well as demonstrate their entrepreneurial capabilities, according to a statement from Maruti Suzuki India (MSI).

"As a key stakeholder, we are committed to nurture and promote a culture of innovation in this dynamic industry. In the last two years, we have had an encouraging experience through the MAIL initiative. Already 25 startups are engaged with us and 13 Proof of Concepts have been enabled. Several of these are successfully bringing value to the business of the automobile industry," MSI managing director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said.

MAIL, which was launched in January 2019, aims to identify and bring together startups with innovative and cutting-edge solutions, and then collaborate to co-create technology-led solutions in the mobility and automobile space.

MSI has joined forces with GHV Accelerator, an Indo-Japanese early-stage seed fund, to identify and address early-stage startups with innovative and customer-focused solutions.

As part of a three-month acceleration period, the potential of applicants is assessed, and the necessary support and guidance for their growth is provided.

 Maruti Suzuki has so far worked with 25 startups, with eight of them undergoing acceleration. The programme has already enabled 13 Proofs of Concept.