The fourth cohort of the Airbus innovation project kicked off on April 4, 2019 at the Airbus BizLab ‘Take Off’ event in Bengaluru, a flagship innovation event that is being held annually, since 2016.
Airbus BizLab is a global aerospace business accelerator programme, where startups and Airbus entrepreneurs speed up the transformation of innovative ideas into valuable businesses. The objective of the initiative is to encourage young entrepreneurs to come up with innovative ideas and provide them support such that they can transform these ideas into viable businesses.
Airbus BizLab provides wide-ranging support for early-stage projects in the form of a six-month accelerator programme, through which entrepreneurs, start-up businesses and Airbus employee “intrapreneurs” are given access to a large number of coaches, experts and mentors across various domains – including technology, legal, finance, marketing and communications, easing prototyping and market access.
Airbus invites applications from startups at the beginning of each season. Every year, Airbus gets an overwhelming response with approximately 100-200 applications from B2B startups. Every application is screened thoroughly, and top 20 innovators are selected to make their pitch to the screening jury. The jury then shortlists 6-7 most promising ideas to integrate into the BizLab.
Over the past three years, Airbus has hosted 50 startups and 40 Airbus internal projects in its six-month programme at the three locations - Toulouse (France), Hamburg (Germany) and Bangalore (India) – creating a global network of business accelerators. In India alone, Airbus has worked with 22 startups and internal projects across four cohorts of Airbus BizLab.
Globally, Airbus BizLab already counts several success stories including: the Jetlite start-up that developed a specific lighting system for reducing jetlag and secured a contract from a leading airline for their new A350 XWB; the Uwinloc start-up that has raised € 2.3 million to date with its innovative RFID tracking system; internal projects such as the iflyA380.com website, the unique booking assistant tool for the iconic A380.
In India, Airbus has collaborated with Neewee, a four-year-old startup based out of Bengaluru, which develops industrial analytics software for the manufacturing industry. Airbus’ manufacturing facility in Hamburg, Germany is using Neewee’s software, which increases cost efficiencies across the supply chain, improves delivery rates and reduces quality issues.
A total of seven startups made pitches. These include:
Flutura: is an AI Solutions company focused on improving "Asset Uptime" and "Operational Efficiency" of any business. Flutura is backed by global Venture Capital firms and strategic partners out of USA, Singapore, and Japan and main offices are located in Houston, Palo Alto, and Bengaluru, India.
Agnikul: The company designs, manufactures, tests and launches orbital class rockets for micro and nano satellites. Their team of rocket scientists, engineers, ex-bankers and space lawyers work out of the National Center for Combustion R&D at IIT-Madras.
Gnani.ai: An AI startup that has been working on building ASR’s (automated speech recognition) for leading Indian languages. Gnani. Ai’s speech to text engine is currently available in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Gujarati. Gnani’s solutions include Enterprise Customer Care Automation, Voice Assistants and Voice biometrics.
Hey Flyer: is a platform developed to change the experience of travellers through their entire journey, whether it being at an airport or onboard a flight. The platform consolidates airport information and makes it readily available to flyers along with allowing them to connect with like-minded travellers too.
Trapyz: enables brands and marketers with AI driven insights for better understanding of real-world consumer journeys. The platform provides intent-based audience segmentation by analyzing patterns in multi-dimensional data.
Traxof: Traxof Technologies excels in developing cutting edge solutions in various segments such as aerospace, manufacturing, healthcare, education, construction & supply chain. The company is headquartered in Bengaluru and builds cloud and mobile based products in the domain of Customized Process Automation.
Scapic: is the easiest platform to build and share VR, AR, 360 & 3D experiences big or small. No coding necessary, simply drag & drop! Scapic can be used for many purposes including presentations, product tours, training, portfolios, location tours, brand marketing experiences, educational content, galleries. The company is headquartered in Bengaluru.