Aimed at Startups and Corporates with existing or planned collaboration with India

With more than 7,500 Indian start-ups, India is the third largest start-up ecosystem worldwide. Many of the biggest industry leaders take part in this thriving ecosystem - including Daimler AG, who has built up Mercedes Benz R&D India (MBRDI) as the group’s largest innovation campus outside Germany to develop disruptive automotive technologies with Indian Startups such as Noumenon Multiphysics. Prospects for collaboration with Germany go beyond that - with the non-monetary German Indian Startup Exchange Program, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) strives to strengthen and foster exchange between India and Germany in the startup space and support Indian and German startups in their efforts to gain access to the respective other market. As such, this open panel discussion with all participants aims to explore new horizons with India as a thriving hub for the transfer of R&D and technology innovation.

Tentative Agenda (CEST):

10:30 - 10:40: Welcome and Introduction of MBRDI 

10:40 - 10:50: Interview with Noumenon Multiphysics

10:50 - 11:00: Insights on Indo-German startup activities and Toolkit for Businesses in India by     GINSEP 

11:00 - 11:05: Plug and Play outlook on India

11:05 - 11:25: Panel Discussion with Plug and Play Germany GmbH, Daimler, MBRDI, Noumenon and GINSEP and audience Q&A

11:25 - 11:30: Closing and exchange of contact details

Topic Intro

• Felix Köppenkastrop-Lüker, Project Coordination STARTUP AUTOBAHN at Mercedes-Benz AG

"The Smart Convertible Roof System" Focus: Smart Surfaces

• Imagine Intelligent Materials – Dennis Antiohos, Principal Research Scientist
• Webasto – Richard Seidl, Concept Engineer

"From Waste to Resource – A Cinderella Story in the Automotive Industry" Focus: Sustainable New Materials

• UBQ – Sophie Tuviahu, VP of Sales & Business Development
• Motherson – Ridhi Mahendru, Innovation Strategy Manager

It has been proven that many companies are unlikely (or simply, unable) to come up with groundbreaking innovations on their own. Consequently, over the last several years, industries around the world have started opening up their doors to a wider ecosystem, with many companies investing into crowdsourcing activities and strategic collaborations.  It has since then become the standard to engage in open innovation, also more and more due to the increasing global competition. Companies need to stay alert and act agile in order to remain in the game. Therefore, it is no surprise that cross-collaboration with various stakeholders among various industries gained on importance considerably.  The main question is: what is the recipe for success in employing new innovative strategies and collaborating across industries - and how does it affect the global strategies of multinational companies?  Nowadays, these questions are fundamental for businesses. And especially in these turbulent times, open innovation has become more relevant than ever. This panel discussion will reveal the best practices of our partners and how they are realising their innovation objectives together with open innovation platform STARTUP AUTOBAHN powered by Plug and Play.