Comments
Industrial equipment maker Rolls-Royce is planning to bring its accelerator-cum-incubator initiative for start-ups to India.
Caroline Gorski, Group Director of R2 Data Labs, which is the accelerator hub within Rolls-Royce, told BusinessLine that there is a need for a collaborative approach to innovate, and Bengaluru, with its big start-up base, will help the company meet all its business needs.
Companies such as Rolls-Royce and others are upping their manufacturing ante with a focus on using technologies such as automation, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), analytics, Quantum Computing and other specific tech capabilities. As the British company transitions into these areas, it is seeking the help of start-ups to up the innovation quotient.
“We know that there are many interesting start-ups out there and to continue being a leader, there is a need for enhanced collaboration,” said Gorski.
Rolls-Royce's R2 (R-square) Data Labs Ecosystem Programme counts an extensive portfolio of 500 start-ups and companies as a part of this initiative.
Gorski said the company will provide technical support and mentoring to these start-ups. It, however, did not specify the number of start-ups it is looking at in India.
In India, Rolls-Royce has partnered with TCS to further its digital innovation journey.
Additionally, it wants to increase the pace of change and possibly alter its business model on the back of millions of gigabytes of data that it gets from its installed machines. “We envision this as a marketplace for digital innovation,” said Gorski.
For example, predictive maintenance of its machines, which can help detect a breakdown before it happens, and using supply chain information data to streamline production are some of the areas where it seeks help from start-ups.
India is seeing a slew of start-ups in the industrial space. In the IoT segment alone, there has been a ten-fold increase in the number of start-ups.
IoT Forum, a think-tank to build the IoT Ecosystem in India, said that in the timeframe 2014-2018, more than 1,200 start-ups are playing in the IoT segment. “In technology areas like this, Indian start-ups have the potential to create the next set of unicorns,” said Vivek Mansingh, General Partner, YourNest, a VC company.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.