DST, Intel, SINE-IIT Bombay launch 3rd edition of ‘Plugin’
Bengaluru, March 14 (IANS) The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Intel India, and Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE) – IIT Bombay announced the third edition of Plugin, a one-year collaborative accelerator programmme for hardware and systems software startups.
Eleven startups have been selected from over 200 entries from across the country in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), security and platform to receive mentoring and coaching, access to labs for tools and platforms, technical and financial support, local and international ecosystem connect and visibility.
“Intel continues to be committed to advancing the systems startups (hardware and software) ecosystem in the country in collaboration with the government and academia. Our Intel India Maker Lab incubation programme has so far supported over 70 startups in accelerating their innovation journey and scaling their businesses,” Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India and VP – Data Platforms Group, Intel Corp, said in a statement this week.
“We have also seen tremendous success with the last two editions of Plugin, with several participating startups having taken their products to market and generating revenue,” Rai added.
According to Rai, in its third year, Plugin is supporting startups that are using data-centric technologies to drive innovation in the healthcare, manufacturing, industrial, retail, automotive and banking domains.
Plugin aims to address challenges that hardware and systems software startups face with respect to product design, development, commercialisation, and scaling their business.
The collaborative programme facilitates infrastructure and technical support, prototyping, product development and manufacturing connect from Intel India Maker Lab and SINE-IIT Bombay.
In the final phase, the startups will be able to showcase their solutions to investors and ecosystem players at a demo day, with the top performing startups also qualifying for post-program funding support.
A total of 20 startups were shortlisted from over 200 entries from across India for an initial four-day bootcamp.
