Pune:
The MoU was signed at EKA’s Trucks and SCV Plant in Chakan by
AIC Pinnacle CEO Dr. Avinash Thakur and NATRAX Director Dr. Manish Jaiswal.
The partnership will leverage AIC Pinnacle's startup
incubation, mentoring and industry network and NATRAX's automotive testing and
validation infrastructure. This will help startups move from prototyping to
product development, testing, validation and commercialisation, with a key
focus on electric vehicles and automotive mobility.
As an immediate step, the organisations discussed conducting
a startup hackathon and providing suitable startups from AIC Pinnacle's
existing cohort access to NATRAX's testing facilities. They will also
facilitate access to technical expertise and industry networks, helping
startups improve their products and move towards market readiness.
The signing ceremony was attended by key representatives from
EKA Mobility, AIC Pinnacle, and NATRAX, including Zoeb Altafhussain
Karampurwala, Chief Product Officer, EKA Mobility; Kaustubh Vasant Joshi and
Pankaj Shivrudrappa Munoli, Chief Engineers - Research & Development, EKA
Mobility; Swapnil Anil Tambe, Team Lead - Research & Development, EKA
Mobility; Shadab Hussain, Senior Manager, AIC Pinnacle; and Tulika Mazumdar,
Senior Engineer and Group Lead, NATRAX.
"The partnership with NATRAX opens an important bridge
between startups and the automotive testing and validation ecosystem. Our
objective is to help promising innovations move beyond the incubation stage and
gain access to the technical, industry and testing support required to develop
market-ready solutions," said Dr. Avinash Thakur, CEO, AIC Pinnacle.
Commenting on the collaboration, NATRAX Director Dr.
Manish Jaiswal said the partnership would create opportunities for
startups and innovators to access relevant testing, validation and ecosystem
capabilities. "Such partnerships can contribute to accelerating the
development and adoption of emerging mobility technologies," he said.
Dr. Sudhir Mehta, Founder and Chairman, Pinnacle Industries
and Group Companies,
said, "Electric mobility will remain a key focus area for AIC Pinnacle
in the coming period. This MoU strengthens that vision by giving startups
direct access to the industry, strategic partners, academic institutions and
government agencies they need to scale."
The partnership will also explore connecting startups with
industry participants, strategic partners, educational institutions, government
stakeholders and other ecosystem organisations across Maharashtra, Madhya
Pradesh and the wider automotive innovation ecosystem.
AIC Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum is a not-for-profit
startup incubator supported by the Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog. It
works with startups through incubation, mentoring, industry connections and
capacity building, with focus areas including electric vehicles, cleantech,
sustainability, healthtech, manufacturing and engineering.
NATRAX is an automotive testing and certification facility
located near Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh, providing testing and validation
infrastructure for automotive technologies and products.