XR Startup
Program

A program to discover, nurture, and accelerate
XR technology startups across India.

Implementation partner

Grand Challenge -

Agritech and Climate Action
Tourism and Sustainability

Meet the XR Startups & Innovators

  • Nibiaa Devices Pvt. Ltd.
  • Agspert Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
  • Vedant Bhargava
  • Koppunoo- Bhanu D-akash Reddy
  • Gyanvi
  • Shreyash Kumar
  • Md Sarup Ali Mondal
  • R B Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
  • Cloket
  • Harsar Innovations
  • Topview Infolabs Private Limited
  • Kanglei Technologies
  • Dr. Shrabani Mallick
  • Lalrinngheti Sangsiama
  • Denzong Water
  • Gochakung
  • Bandita Bhattarai
  • Edvacations
  • Jigme Sherpa
  • Sabhya Arora
Applications are now closed
Problem statements

The applications should propose ideas or solutions that leverage XR technologies with the objective of:

  • Transforming and revolutionizing agriculture
  • Solving for present-day challenges of the agriculture sector
  • Addressing the impact of climate change
  • Enabling climate action

The applications should propose ideas or solutions that leverage XR technologies to:

  • Enhance/ re-define/ revolutionize tourism
  • Enable sustainable tourism
  • Address challenges faced by the travel industry
  • Promote sustainability

Benefits of the Program

1. Top 20 shortlisted innovators will receive the following benefits:

Opportunity to attend the bootcamp

Shortlist grant of ₹ 50,000 on successful completion of the bootcamp

2. Top 4 innovators out of the bootcamp will receive the following benefits:

Grant of ₹ 20,00,000 to be utilized solely for conversion of solution/ idea/ proof of concept to MVP/ prototype

Mentorship by industry experts and researchers

Access to a network of potential strategic partners and investors

Opportunity to participate and present at demo days and various industry events

Access to technology and infrastructure support

Eligibility

  • Students studying at a university in India
  • Entrepreneurs, working professionals, faculty or researchers based in India
  • Aspiring Indian startups at the ideation stage or at pre-MVP/ prototype stage
Applications are now closed

Key target outcomes

  • Development of workable MVP(s) prototypes
  • Partnership/ customer connects
  • Investor introductions

Program timeline

Application Start Date
August 2022
Application End Date
October 2022
Announcement of Top 20 Shortlisted Applicants
January 2023
Bootcamp
January 2023
Announcement of Top 4 Final Applicants
February 2023
Commencement of 6-month Program
March 2023
Demo Days
August 2023
Note: Dates/ timelines are subject to change. Kindly check this site regularly for the latest information.

Mentors

Amit Choudhury

Co-Founder lenskart.com (CHIEF MENTOR)

Achyut Chandra

Experienced leader in commercializing business innovation and curating co-create engagements for clients. (Open Innovation) • Ecosystem technology architecture evaluation for innovation business cases (Finding the right first use case) • Helping frame and prioritize the right problem statements that are required to get started for a disruptive innovation journey (Innovation/ business consulting through tech enabled ideas) • Product management and business development for homegrown technology incubation initiatives, web and mobile. (IP Dev) • Partnerships/ target scouting with open innovation ecosystem and internal capability teams to drive design thinking led implementations on Deep Tech. (CorpVen) • Development of perspectives and strategy on technology innovation for industry, viz. Healthcare, FinTech, e-Comm, Media, SaaS, Education, Gaming and Aviation through research, CxO stakeholder consultations and organisation wide implementations.

Anand Gurnani

An ecosystem builder, a digital transformation accelerator, an immersive technologies expert & evangelist, a passionate teacher & a serial entrepreneur. With these strengths garnered over 27 years of his career, and applying it with a single minded focus & zeal, Founded VAMRR Technologies in Oct 2016 VAMRR has two business segments; both focused on "Digital Transformation in the Immersive Age" and delivering value via the application of emerging technologies.

Gulshan Purswani

Gulshan Purswani, Delivery Head at Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions. AR/VR & Customer Experience. Responsible for delivery of Solutions entailing Mixed Reality, CRM, & eCommerce portfolios. Gulshan has been with Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions for over 6 years. A Chartered Accountant with close to 20 years in the trade, he brings a unique mix of business and technology to solve industry problems. In addition, he has completed the Executive General Management Program from IIM, Bangalore. Gulshan is also responsible for defining the technology roadmap, thought leadership and the partner ecosystem development. He was instrumental in conceptualizing and developing the ‘Digital Workshop’, a unique workshop management system by Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, designed to act as an end-to-end solution for automotive workshops. As an Expert on Enterprise scale applications, he is currently working on various products in Customer Experience and Mixed Reality domains and works closely with global customers to accelerate their journey towards a better customer experience.

Ms. Sneha Harinder

Emmy Award Nominee for United States Golf Association (USGA) 2021 Augmented Reality App for the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and U.S. Women's Open at The Olympic Club has been nominated by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for a Sport Emmy Award in the “Outstanding Interactive Experience”.

Prashant Agarwal

Over 12 years of international experience in varied semiconductor & digital technologies, application domains and roles, including 6+ years in driving R&D/product strategy, business and technology development, and customer interfacing. Strong & broad technical background complemented with entrepreneurial experiences and commercial acumen. Currently leading product, business and M&A strategy for sensors at TE Connectivity. Previously, managed technology transformation and strategy initiatives at Verisure, and R&D programs in sensors & actuator technologies at imec. Also led/managed product-business-IP strategy development & execution, and raised funding for internally incubated venture as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at imec.

Raman Talwar

Raman is a well decorated, top-rank holder and a multi-award winning Masters in Chemical Engineering with Honours in Research (MEng. Hons.) from the University of Manchester (UK). On the back of some ground breaking research work in a specialist domain, he has received prestigious accolades from the university and several nominations from industry during his time in England. Whilst taking on challenging assignments ably testifying his impressive technical and transferable skill-set, he has the experience of working for some of the world’s most respected FTSE-100 companies in the FMCG, Engineering Consultative and Process Design industries. His core interests lie in the development and application of process simulation and optimization models to solve real world problems. He also takes a keen interest in the field of computer-aided design and development of process safety solutions applicable across a range of industries including oil & gas, pharmaceutical and chemicals.

Sanjeeb Behera

Experienced UX Design Manager and XR enthusiast. Skilled in Design Thinking and applying User Centered Design principles to solve problems and create better user experiences. Currently leading XR initiatives in Europe, advocating and delivering XR solutions to solve real-life business and human challenges. During my time with HCL, I have the privilege to manage a global design and creative team, including experience designers, service designers, visual designers, usability experts, product designers and project managers.

Vinay Hegde

With more than 20 years of experience in product development & software architecture. Areas of expertise are IoT (and embedded systems), Large scale networks (and internet protocols) and large scale data processing and management. He has worked both as a technical contributor (IC roles) and also leadership leading large teams across continents that developed complex software products in Ad-tech, developer tools, Content delivery networks, Analytics, IoT, e-commerce and logistics.

Knowledge partners

Frequently Asked Questions

Eligible innovators can click here to submit the application form. They will need to provide information such as the description of solution/ idea/ proof of concept, how it addresses problem statements among other things. For reference, a copy of the application form can be downloaded from here. Applicants can submit only 1 application.

Innovators working on Extended Reality (XR) technologies in the gaming and entertainment sector and who fulfill the eligibility criteria mentioned above and detailed in the program terms and conditions available here may apply. All finalists (whether individual or startups) will be required to pursue their solution/ idea with full dedication and commitment, and form a business entity for developing and marketing their solution/ idea before the conclusion of the program.

The terms and conditions of the Grand Challenge can be found here.

AIC-SMUTBI will establish a 3-member panel to evaluate and shortlist the applications. The applications will then be discussed with the steering committee established by Meta in collaboration with MSH. The shortlisted applicants will be informed by AIC-SMUTBI.

The selection will be based on the following criteria:

  • Alignment of the proposed solution with the problem statement
  • Uniqueness, originality and innovativeness of the proposed solution
  • Effectiveness and practicability of the proposed solution
  • Potential of the proposed solution to become a business opportunity at scale

In the event of a tie in the selection, the application with the highest score in the uniqueness, originality, and innovativeness of the proposed solution criterion will be considered.

20 innovators will be selected for the bootcamp. During the bootcamp, they will be required to pitch their proposal/ solution and will receive the shortlist grant. 4 innovators will be selected out of the bootcamp and provided with the program benefits mentioned above. To avail the benefits, the innovators must attend, participate, and complete the 6-month program.

The bootcamp will help the top 20 shortlisted innovators assess their ideas, evaluate market opportunity, establish unique value propositions, and hone an initial startup business plan. After completing the bootcamp, the shortlisted innovators will have to pitch their idea/ solution to the panel formed by AIC-SMUTBI. The bootcamp will help shortlisted innovators make a Go/ No-Go decision about their startup ideas.

Individuals may participate collectively in a group of up to 4. Individuals may only participate 1 time in the program as an individual/ part of a team/ employee of a startup. Requirements set forth in T&Cs are applicable to each individual member of a team. Shortlist grant and program benefits will be given to the individual who applies to the program. For further details, refer to T&Cs.

Depending on your focus area, you can apply to only 1 implementation partner under the XR Startup Program. For further details, refer to T&Cs.

For further information, drop an email to contact@smutbi.com

All the program benefits mentioned on this page above shall be made available to the selected startups by AIC-SMUTBI. For further details, refer to T&Cs

About AIC-SMUTBI

AIC-SMU Technology Business Incubation Foundation nurtures and incubates early stage entrepreneurial ventures based on technology and innovation by providing infrastructure, mentorship and seed grants to promising young entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams of starting their own venture. AIC-SMUTBI persistently encourages young entrepreneurs to hone their skills in generating valued human resources rather than the traditional manpower that feeds need of the industry.

Get in touch
Phone - +91 7063819616
Hours of contact - 9:00 AM - 5:00PM (All working days)