With the aim of accelerating innovation in areas of Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric (CASE) mobility in India, young entrepreneurs presented their innovative business ideas to the jury at the C.A.S.E. Mobility Grand Start-up Challenge as part of the Telangana government’s ongoing Hyderabad E-Mobility Week (5-11 February 2023).
The challenge saw founders of seven startups, including two each from the state of Telangana and Karnataka, and one each from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, present their innovations and business ideas and made strong pitches to the jury at the finale.
Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT, Electronics & Communications, and Industries & Commerce Departments, government of Telangana said, “The C.A.S.E Mobility Grand Challenge is an important part of the Hyderabad E-Mobility Week and addresses important aspects of innovation in new-age mobility.”
i-elektrik, which creates smart charging solutions for the emerging EV markets won the Challenge while NeoMotion, an IIT Madras startup that creates transformative electric products for wheelchair users (elderly, physically challenged) to enable them to be an inclusive part of society was adjudged the runner-up. Both the winners will avail a grant of Rs 15 lakh, sponsored by TVS Motor Company, for their projects.
The other participants in the challenge included –
- Hala Mobility provides multimodal EV shared mobility platform with two offerings, EV as a service and platform as a service for micro fleet operators.
- Adiabatic, a social enterprise that provides a scalable intelligent Battery Management System (BMS) to calculate and predict accurate battery data, reducing the temperatures of the battery.
- Comuti Energy Vayu, a sustainable mobility venture with patented technology of storage of fuel for fuel cell technology.
- Aatral develops innovative cathode for sodium-ion batteries as an alternative to lithium batteries.
- AutoNXt builds driverless electric tractors and high-voltage electric powertrains.
Saurabh Bakliwal, MD & Partner, BCG, one of the juries for the event, said, “The solutions built by the startups in CASE challenge were truly very bold, taking on leading global companies with deep tech solutions. It was really energising to witness the impressive quality of their submissions and be a part of the jury, evaluating and celebrating the brilliance of these entrepreneurs.”
The other jury members were Sascha Ricanek, VP, ZF RaceEngineering; Vikram Garga, Group Head, Marketing, Apollo Tyres; Sanjeev P, Head, Micro Mobility, TVS Motor Company; Mamatha Chamarthi, Head of Software & Business Product Management, Stellantis and Prof. Rajalashmi, Director TiHan, IIT Hyderabad.
Telangana is said to be one of the first states to launch the EV&ESS policy in 2020. At present, it is growing to be the biggest hub for technology and innovation by being home to several of the largest global IT players and auto industries.
The start-up challenge was organised by the government of Telangana in association with T-Hub, the world’s largest innovation centre, in association with Telangana Mobility Valley (TMV), India’s first cluster focusing on new and sustainable mobility, and TiHan.
