Flying high on the Indian startup wave, Airbus, the international pioneer in the aerospace industry, on Friday signed contracts with three Indian startups. These deals were signed by Airbus subsidiaries NAVBLUE and Aerial with three startups accelerated at Airbus Bizlab India.
NAVBLUE signed up Bengaluru-based Stelae Technologies to enhance aeronautical data services quality and consistency while enabling faster introduction to the market of the next generation fully data-driven and connected EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) solution. They also extended its agreement with EFLIGHT with the aim of providing a comprehensive service solution to the Indian business aviation market.
The third agreement was signed between Airbus Aerial and Navi Mumbai-based Airpix for a joint go-to market in India to provide geo-analytics solutions and imagery services in the country.
Making the announcement at a press meetup held in Bengaluru, the agreements also marked the culmination of the third season of the Airbus accelerator programme.
Bruno Gutierres, Global Head, Airbus BizLab, said at the event, “For the last couple of years I have been convinced with the potential and the quality of entrepreneurs in India. I am pleased to see that all these partnerships between Airbus and Indian startups are proving me right.”
Gutierres also commended the robust ecosystem provided by the Indian government for a thriving startup environment.
The Season 3 of Airbus BizLab’s start-up acceleration programme TAKE OFF 2018, also seeks to bolster the Indian government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Startup India’ initiatives.
Shruti Singh, Director of Department of Industrial Policy (DIPP), said, “Indian Government’s initiatives about the new tech sector are not about creating jobs — but about creating job creators.” She added, “India’s vision is to support startups and work with MNCs to take Indian startups global and also help the country innovate.”
Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, was set to attend the event but had to cancel his plans at the last minute. However, he sent in a video to encourage Airbus BizLab and their programme.
Siddharth Balachandran, Airbus BizLab Leader, India, added that they have accelerated 16 startups so far, out of which 5 are “success stories”. Among these 5, three signed contracts with Airbus (and their subsidiaries) today. He also said that these startups had generated over $1.5 million so far.
Exciting discussions with AirbusBiz Lab India around global market access opportunities for Indian startups in the Aerospace sector and making India a global startup hub for aerospace startups @airbusbizlab @SidRdy pic.twitter.com/coXjilzTn7
— Startup India (@startupindia) July 6, 2018
Bizlab is a part of Airbus’ innovative strategy to bring together start-ups and Airbus intrapreneurs to work and speed up the transformation of their innovative ideas into valuable businesses. It has a community of over 2,000 B2B start-ups from India, South East Asia and Israel. Through its six-month acceleration programme for start-ups and internal projects, Airbus Bizlab gives access to a large number of coaches, experts and mentors in various domains that help start-ups and internal projects speed-up the transformation of their ideas into valuable businesses.
As part of the TAKE OFF programme, Airbus BizLab will sponsor two travels to Europe for Indian start-ups in a period of six months as well as fund up to £50,000 to them for the demonstration of proof of concept.
“NAVBLUE believes in India’s potential for multiple reasons. One is India’s proven capacity for innovation within the IT sector, which is demonstrated perfectly by the start-ups present at the Airbus’ BizLab, with whom we work very closely. Another is the potential of the aerospace industry; India has the world’s fastest-growing domestic airline market,” said Fabrice Villaumé, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at NAVBLUE. “We are very excited to work with startups and SMEs in India to help power this growth, and bring value to the Indian aviation industry with our integrated solutions,” he added.
