India today, is the third largest Unicorn hub pacing to scale with U.S and China respectively with more than 90 Unicorns. This Indian startup ecosystem has evolved dynamically over the last two decades where the immature ecosystem gave birth to some startups, founded in the last two decades. Due to considerable exits in the last ten years, Bangalore has emerged as India’s primary startup hub. Significant founding activity also takes place in Mumbai and the National Capital Region (NCR). Given the scale of India and its resource constraints, low-cost, high-impact solutions are required. Technological start-ups play a crucial role in accomplishing this, because of their potential for scalability and exponential growth. This stormy confluence creates the base for sustainability and growth in the backdrop of Omicron and Unicorn.
In view of the above, VDMA India had organised an interactive web-seminar for Europe and India on 18th of January 2022 on Connecting start-ups and Mechanical Engineering for catalysing growth in the industry organised by The German Engineering Federation (VDMA) collaborating with our esteemed speaker. This web exchange would have a keynote address by our Dr. Eric Maiser, Head of the Competence Centre Future Business, and start-up Radar at VDMA Frankfurt office. Dr. Maiser would be emphasized the significance of connecting the Mechanical Engineering Industry to the start-ups for their growth and sustenance., further welcoming the 4 innovative startups– Treeni, Resonating Mindz, Algo8 and Connected Thinks. The event was finely addressed by Mr. Rajesh Nath, MD, VDMA and moderated by Mr. S. Manohar, Regional Head, VDMA Bangalore.
The Keynote Address by Dr. Eric Maiser, Head of Competence Centre Future business and Startup-Machine, VDMA, emphasized on the significance of connecting the Mechanical Engineering Industry to the start-ups for their growth and sustenance. He further describes this as the ‘quest’ for the future of Business – the next big thing.
The web-seminar progressed to cover the 4 start-ups pitching their innovative ideas covering topics like Predictive Analysis, Machine Monitoring, ESG consulting, Intelligent Asset Management and Cyber Security. The Promising presenters were Treeni, Resonating Mindz, Algo8 and Connected Thinks. While many emerging start-ups are in the areas of electronics and information sciences, the field of mechanical engineering has huge potential that has yet to be fully exploited. The speed of technological innovation and the diversity of business ideas keep the start-up landscape in constant flux. The innovative approach towards sustainability would bring changes in the process of making products as well as services. Development of new market areas will emerge in the un-served locations through this process. Each Start-up highlighted the following aspects in their presentations:
- Ms. Vani Hans of Treeni, presented on sustainability and structured calculations on carbon emissions.
- Avinash Manerahimatpurkar of Resonating Mindz, highlighted the digitalization of production lines on accelerating Industry 4.0
- Nandan Mishra of Algo8 presented the tools for empowering manufacturers with AI
- Ameet Kalagi of connectedthinks, Industrial data solutions for Industry 4.0
As Mr. Nath correctly recalls the words of the honourable Prime Minister on the celebration of the World Start-up Day, “our Startups are changing the rules of the game. That is why I believe Startups are going to be the backbone of the New India and the golden era of Indian Startups is starting now”.
The next round resumed with an engaging question- answer sessions by our keynote speaker Dr. Maiser to all the presenters over Aritificial Intelligence Vs Machine Learning, Data Security- privacy management, Carbon- emission- awareness and identification etc. Nevertheless, Indian startups face significant challenges. Overcoming such hurdles will require efforts of all stakeholders, i.e., the ecosystem actors, governmental authorities, as well as the startups themselves. In addition, changes in the broader cultural milieu would be helpful to encourage people taking risks and possibly developing impactful solutions.
Furthermore, conclusions were drawn by Mr. Nath moderating the Q&A sessions, recalls a famous quote by Reid Hoffman, “All humans are entrepreneurs, not because they should start companies, but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.” He emphasizes businesses to shift from conventional methods to entirely digitally-driven operations, thereby creating better avenues for market forces. Leveraging new-age technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, big data, etc. several start-ups are working towards bridging wide-ranging gaps that were introduced in the market.
Though we are moving in the right direction, however the regulators have to play a more proactive role in formulating appropriate regulations that encourage innovation and support emerging startups and they need to foster a conducive climate for ensuring easier availability of domestic capital.
VDMA India 