IIMA Ventures‘s Indore Smart City Accelerator Programme Announces Support For 14 Start-Ups 

IIMA Ventures (formerly IIMA-CIIE) has announced its support for 14 start-ups from Indore in its first cohort of the Indore Smart City Accelerator program. Supported by the Departments of Science and Technology, the Government of India, and Smart City Indore, the programme aims to coach start-ups in developing business models and proposals required to engage with public sector customers. 

The program received applications from 100 start-up entities registered and based in India, with the goal of finding innovative solutions for the Indore Smart City in sectors related to urban mobility, cleanliness, citizen safety and security, and air quality. 

Additionally, it aimed to assist early-stage startups building for Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in landing pilots to validate their solutions. In collaboration with Indore Smart City, the Indore Smart City Accelerator conducted a three-day intensive bootcamp in Indore.  

These start-ups were trained in various sessions like business modeling, unit economics, B2G sales, applying for government tenders, and investment readiness by angel investors, and had access to one-on-one mentoring sessions and office hours with Subject Matter Experts. This was followed by virtual diagnostic panels and mentoring sessions.  

From the cohort, 3 start-ups have been shortlisted for pilots by Indore Smart City:  

1. Aumsat Technologies: Founded by Riddhish Soni, Ex-ISRO, the team has developed a solution to detect leakages in water pipelines, pinpointing locations up to 10 feet underground using IoT-based solutions and satellite imagery. This innovation aims to reduce non-revenue water losses from an estimated 40 per cent to 15 per cent. 

2. Arc Robotics: The team of engineers has developed a vehicle-mounted robot with six degrees of freedom to detect and clean sewage pipelines to eliminate manual scavenging in India.

3. Pod Pitara: The team has tied up with the Indore administration to install IoT-enabled radios across public buses in the city as an experiment to help ULBs disseminate important city-related updates and awareness among the citizens of Indore. 

One more start-up, Electica, has been invested in by IIMA Ventures through one of its regional ecosystem development programs. Electica has developed an automated battery-swapping solution specifically positioned towards creating a battery-swapping infrastructure in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Furthermore, two start-ups from the cohort will also be considered for grants up to Rs 5 lakh.