Airbus is very interested in these Bengaluru startups! Know why

India has been attracting massive global attention and investor interest for the past few months. The latest is European plane-maker Airbus, which is banking on Bengaluru for new business ideas for its aircraft programmes. It is for the first time in its 46-year history that the company is seeking ideas from startups across the world. Airbus already has an engineering centre in Bengaluru.
The company’s first stop outside its French base is Hamburg, Germany, while the second would be the Silicon Valley, making it the latest global company to cash in on growing number of entrepreneurs in Asia's third largest economy, as per an Economic Times report.
The initiative is part of Airbus' business accelerator programme called BizLabs, under which it would select business ideas outside its French base and mentor them.
Till now, it has only scouted for ideas within the group. The only level where it has engaged with other companies is for supply of plane parts or technology.
“What is the weakness of a big group like Airbus when we talk about innovation? We believe that we have better ideas than the rest of the world. We believe that we know because we control the technologies and platforms. The world has shown us in the car industry, the space industry and the hi-tech industry that this is not true. And we need to be open to others' ideas and others' innovations," said its global CEO Fabrice Bregier recently.
"I think in Bengaluru—with what we know and what we have already invested, especially on systems innovations—we can come up with very good ideas," he said, adding that platforms in both locations (Hamburg and Bengaluru) may be set up in 12 months.
Meanwhile, technology startups in India attracted investments of over $1 billion in January-March, up two-fold from the same quarter last year.
Bregier gave the example of a telecom company which works on "ultra narrow band" systems which isn't normally useful for Airbus. But the application is really efficient in testing whether doors are locked while on tarmacs. "This is small, this is cheap but it is such a thing nobody cares for within Airbus," he said, stressing on importance to look for ideas outside.

(Image: Reuters)