Maruti Suzuki Partners 5 Startups to Push AI

Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) on Monday announced it has joined hands with five startups under the fifth cohort of its Maruti Suzuki Incubation Program (MSIP), with the collaborations aimed at enhancing operational efficiency, strengthening customer experience and developing solutions for recycling end-of-life electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

As part of the programme, MiniMines will develop environmentally friendly solutions to recycle end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and recover valuable materials from them. Easework AI will deploy agentic artificial intelligence to automate procurement workflows for indirect consumables, including office supplies, maintenance materials and safety equipment.

Also read: Centre Extends Bid Deadline for ₹7,280 Crore Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Scheme: Report

The selected startups are MiniMines, Easework AI, Sarvam AI, Siftly and CodeMate AI. The incubation programme is conducted in partnership with NSRCEL (Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning), the startup incubation arm of IIM Bangalore.

"At Maruti Suzuki, we have been actively working with startups to co-create innovative and practical solutions to 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," Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Maruti Suzuki India, said in a statement.

Sarvam AI will use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) with multilingual capabilities to improve customer interactions across multiple touchpoints. Siftly will leverage GenAI to strengthen brand visibility, while CodeMate AI will focus on accelerating the development of software applications used across Maruti Suzuki's business operations.

The automaker said it has established multiple innovation programmes to support startups developing mobility and manufacturing technologies. Over the past seven years, it has screened around 7,400 startups, engaged with more than 250 and onboarded 38 as partners.