Launch of BuildForBharat IoT Startup Challenge – IoT OpenLab Bengaluru & Jio Things Ltd.

About this Challenge

“BuildForBharat IoT Startup Challenge” is a joint initiative of STPI & Jio Things Pvt Ltd. (JTL) to encourage start-ups to brainstorm, design and build the next generation consumer/business centric innovative solutions for the next billion.

BuildForBharat initiative empowers startups to build great products and scale their offerings via multiple digital touchpoints on Jio Platforms with the support from best of Jio’s technology, platform, thought leadership, network and people.

Startups will receive mentorship and support around Tech, Product Strategy, UX, GTM, Business Models, Marketing, Monetization Strategy, Product Design, Customer Acquisition, Retention, Growth.

BuildForBharat IoT Startup Challenge will also include deep dive sessions, workshops, one on one mentoring sessions. Basis the top challenges outlined by startups we look forward to pair them with those subject matter experts from Jio and the industry to overcome those challenges.

Who Can Apply

The challenge program invites the proposals/applications from Indian Start-ups who are working in IoT domain. Start-ups registered with DPIIT under start-up India program are encouraged to participate in this program.

The start-up may be a

1. Private Limited Company (as defined in the Companies Act, 2013) or
2. Registered Partnership Firm (Regd. under section 59 of the Partnership Act, 1932) or
3. Limited Liability Partnership (under the Liability Partnership Act 2008)
4. Individual Academicians, Researchers, Educators, Entrepreneurs.

The date of registration/incorporation must not be beyond 10 years.

Annual Turnover

Start-up should have an annual turnover not exceeding Rs. 100 crore for any of the financial years since its incorporation.

Original Entity

Entity should not have been formed by splitting up or reconstructing an already existing business.

Innovative & Scalable

Entity working towards innovation, development or improvement of products, processes or services or if it is a scalable business model with high potential of employment generation or wealth creation.

General Guidelines

1. The contest is open to all where participants and teams can select problem statements which they wish to solve basis the defined themes.
2. Top 20 start-ups will be shortlisted across themes. Every Product Idea and Prototype will be offered mentorship by the respective Product Teams.
3. The shortlisted Top 20 start-ups have to be associated with anchor STPI CoE – IoT OpenLab, Bengaluru to avail benefits as per the Terms and Conditions.
4. The contest is open to all where attendees and teams can select problem statements which they wish to solve basis the defined themes.
5. The infrastructure / software(s) required for compiling / interpreting code solutions shall be borne by the team they represent.
6. Language compilers/ interpreters are open source applications that can be downloaded from the internet. Participants will need to submit the source code to a problem only. For example, codes written in Java should be submitted in .java format
7. The initiative supports coding in all languages of teams/individuals choice.
8. The team can have any combination of people with the maximum members being 4.
9. Teams can work on ideas that have already been done. If somebody wants to work on a common idea they should be allowed to do so and should be judged on the quality of their solution. These days it’s hard to find something that’s fully original and teams might not know an idea has been done before anyway.
10. Teams can work on an idea that they have worked on before (as long as they do not re-use code).
11. Teams can use libraries, frameworks, or open-source code in their projects. Working on a project before the event and open-sourcing it for the sole purpose of using the code during the event is against the spirit of the rules and is not allowed.
12. Adding new features to existing projects is allowed. Judges will only consider new functionality introduced or new features added during the BuildForBharat IoT Startup Challenging determining the winners.
13. Projects that violate the Code of Conduct are not allowed.
14. Teams can be disqualified from the competition at the organizers’ discretion. Reasons might include but are not limited to breaking the Competition Rules, breaking the Code of Conduct, or other unsporting behavior.

Focus Areas

1. Smart Assets
   1. Track and Trace
   2. Condition Monitoring
   3. Indoor and Outdoor Automation
   4. Industrial IoT (IIoT)
2. Smart Mobility
   1. Fleet Management
   2. Vehicle Diagnostics
   3. Connected Cars
   4. Cell based tracking
3. Smart Utilities
   1. Smart Energy Metering
   2. Smart Water Metering
   3. Smart Gas Metering

SELECTION PROCESS

Phase-1: Applications from start-ups are invited through an online contest portal

Phase-2: Shortlisting of 20 start-ups with Ideas, POCs and Solutions having strong potential through initial scrutiny

Phase-3: Selection of 3 winners through demonstration & pitch-in session followed by Build and deployment phase.

OFFERINGS

1. Monetary
   1. Total Prize Money: INR 10 Lakh
   1. 1st Prize Winner: INR 5 Lakh
   2. 2nd Prize Winner: INR 3 Lakh
   3. 3rd Prize Winner: INR 2 Lakh
2. Mentoring / Workshop
   1. Product Mentorship
   2. Engineering Mentorship
   3. In person Tech Workshops
   4. Forum and Community
   5. Exclusive community of leaders for mentorship within Jio’s rich leadership ecosystem
   6. Access to Nationwide STPI CoEs Network.
3. Technical
   1. IoT KICKSTARTER PACK – Total amounting to approx. INR 16 Lakh (~INR 80K per start-up for 20 start-ups)
   2. Ready-to-Work Plug & Play space as per requirement.
   3. Access to T&M Equipment, Tools and Sample Bank of Electronics.
   4. Full-time onsite experienced application engineering team and Technical and Business Mentoring by Chief Mentor.
   5. Internet Access.
   6. Access to Credits from the ECO system partners like Mathworks, AWS, etc.
   7. Direct Technical Support
   8. Specialized Pilot Support
   9. Access to world-class JTL IoT Experience Zone
   10. Training on JTL Tools
   11. Product Credits
   12. Membership on JTL Platform
   13. Access to Developer IoT Devices
   14. Exclusive Design Workshops
   15. Tools for Growth
4. Market Connect & Outreach
   1. Access to Customers / Partners
   2. Complimentary Premium Ad Marketing Campaigns on multiple digital touchpoints on Jio Platforms
   3. First Market Access to JTL Platform
   4. Go-To-Market (GTM) Support, Press Release / Social Media Coverage
   5. Insights into Growth Hack Strategies
   6. Equity Free Support

INCENTIVES

IoT KICKSTARTER PACK for Start-ups

1. JTL will help start-ups begin their IoT journey with a “Kickstarter” kit and access to bleeding-edge technologies like NB-IoT and 5G
2. This kit will provide the start-ups with the technology backbone and enable them to focus on the business aspect of their solutions
3. The kit would include:
   1. NB-IoT/ LTE enabled Modules and NIC Cards
   2. SIMs and Connectivity
   3. Software Development Kits
   4. Integration with Jio Things Cloud Server
   5. Jio Things Platform Subscription

The PACK would help the start-ups in following ways:-

1. Software Development Kits/ Libraries enable easy development of applications
2. SIMs and Nationwide connectivity
3. Device Management
4. FOTA
5. Module diagnostics
6. Edge processing algorithms
7. Common protocol for all applications
8. Secure data storage on JTL’s cloud server
9. Subscription to JTL platform providing
   1. Tracking and Monitoring
   2. Analysis
   3. Alerts

TIMELINE