India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, has onboarded five startups under the fifth cohort of its Maruti Suzuki Incubation Programme (MSIP) to co-create innovative solutions spanning battery recycling, artificial intelligence (AI), procurement automation, customer engagement and software development.
The selected startups—MiniMines, Easework AI, Sarvam AI, Siftly and CodeMate AI—will work with the company to improve operational efficiency, strengthen sustainability initiatives and enhance customer experience.
MSIP is organised in partnership with IIM Bangalore’s incubation hub for entrepreneurship and startup support, NSRCEL (Nadathur S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning).
Five startups selected for innovation projects
Under the programme, MiniMines will develop an environmentally friendly solution for recycling end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and recovering valuable materials. Easework AI will deploy agentic AI to automate end-to-end procurement workflows for indirect consumables.
Sarvam AI will build multilingual generative AI agents to improve customer interactions across various touchpoints, while Siftly will leverage generative AI to enhance Maruti Suzuki’s brand visibility. CodeMate AI will focus on accelerating the development of software applications used across the company’s business processes through AI.
Strengthening collaboration with startups
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Managing Director & CEO, Hisashi Takeuchi, said the company has been actively collaborating with startups to co-create practical and innovative solutions that address real business challenges.
“We are delighted to collaborate with five more startups. One of these startups, MiniMines, will support us in safely recycling end-of-life batteries, while the other four startups will help improve customer engagement and drive efficiency across our business operations,” he said.
Innovation ecosystem expands
Maruti Suzuki said it has developed multiple innovation platforms over the past seven years to support startups in creating solutions for real-world business challenges.
During this period, the company has screened around 7,400 startups, engaged with more than 250 ventures and onboarded 38 startups as business partners.
Its flagship innovation initiatives include the Maruti Suzuki Accelerator, launched in 2019 to foster open innovation in automobile manufacturing and mobility by collaborating with growth-stage startups on advanced technologies.
The Maruti Suzuki Incubation Programme, introduced in 2020, focuses on nurturing technology-driven early-stage startups shaping the future of mobility. Through its partnership with NSRCEL at IIM Bangalore, the programme identifies promising mobility startups, provides expert mentorship and connects them with the institute’s academic and entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The company also launched the Mobility Challenge in 2021 to identify mature startups developing next-generation mobility technologies. In 2023, it introduced Nurture, a pre-incubation programme for idea-stage startups in collaboration with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park.
Further strengthening its startup ecosystem, Maruti Suzuki rolled out FundRays in September 2025 in partnership with ISB Hyderabad. The investment-readiness programme supports alumni startups from the company’s innovation initiatives in raising growth capital.