Qualcomm shortlists eight start-ups for Design in India Challenge II

Qualcomm has announced the top eight finalists in the first cycle of Design in India Challenge II (QDIC II), registrations for which started in January 2017.

The eight shortlisted companies are: iSquare Mobility, a portable wireless tele-medical solution to prescreen breast cancer; Avanijal Agri Automation, a Bluetooth device to enhance smart irrigation controller; Alexapath, smart accessories for microscope that makes any conventional microscope smarter; iBot Control Systems, make a single board that can be used to build IoT apps with iBot Toolsets; Hug Innovations, a first of its kind device developer platform that enables the integration and extension of a proprietary gesture control technology with smart devices; Steradian Semiconductors, a high resolution 4D Radar that will enable true all-weather vision for autonomous vehicles and drones; Stella's Technologies, a Wi-Fi sensor module that can be used for smart automatic milk collection unit; Tagbox Solutions, an ultra-low power wireless platform targeted towards improving efficiency of cold storage and logistics.

Enabled by the Qualcomm Technology Licensing team, these top eight companies will now be incubated in the Qualcomm Innovation Lab and two winners will each receive a prize money of $75,000 at the end of the incubation period expected in August 2017.

These finalists were selected through a rigorous selection process which culminated in an extensive pitch session in March 2017. Launched in association with National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), QDIC, now a part of a larger initiative, Qualcomm Design in India Program (QDIP), encourages product companies to create innovative hardware product designs incorporating Qualcomm technologies and platforms.

Acknowledging the continued momentum of QDIC II in enabling innovation, Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, said, “Programs like the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge can play a critical role in evangelizing the digital opportunity and spurring invention. By engaging with smaller companies, this initiative helps them scale faster and enables young entrepreneurs in becoming problem solvers and solution builders.”

“Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Qualcomm. We’ve set out to accelerate growth in the digital ecosystem and we are thrilled to see an overwhelming response for QDIC in its second consecutive year, with eight select technopreneurs ready to transform their ideas from concept to product stage at our Qualcomm Innovation Labs,” said Jim Cathey, senior vice president & president, Asia Pacific & India, Qualcomm Technologies.