Panasonic strengthens engagement with Indian startups with accelerator

Buoyed by the success of its first startup accelerator programme in India, Japan-headquartered conglomerate Panasonic aims to build a deeper connection with the Indian startup ecosystem.

Panasonic Ignition, the startup accelerator programme, was first launched in April this year on the theme of building energy management systems. The theme of the second edition is focused on business-to-consumer (B2C).

On the launch of the second edition, Panasonic Life Solutions India Chief Innovation Officer Manish Misra said, “We are taking it to the next level by creating these cohorts where a diverse set of entrepreneurs want to engage with us and commercialise their solutions.”

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According to Misra, in the first edition of Panasonic Ignition, some selected startups registered a 3-4X rise in revenue and formed a go-to-market (GTM) partnership with the corporation. In addition, the venture capital arm of Panasonic is also actively looking at investments in some of the selected Indian startups.

Panasonic has partnered with Beyond Next Ventures, Denstu, and Zinnov for the second edition.

On the B2C theme for the second edition, Kunio Gohara, Chief Transformation Officer (CTRO) and Head of the CVC office at Panasonic, said the core focus was to understand the aspirations of the customers and how they can come out with solutions to meet their demands.

Panasonic provides a wide range of products, starting from home microwaves to thermal management systems, reaching out to both retail consumers and businesses.

Given the breadth of the B2C theme, Panasonic Ignition has narrowed it down to areas such as pet care systems, senior citizens well being, health tracking etc. Misra said, “Customer desires and future lifestyles are changing. We are looking at offering unique services through this partnership with startups.”

Panasonic will also be engaging with Indian startups on how to engage with artificial intelligence and generative AI. As the first step, it is looking at creating chatbot applications.

Gohara noted that they have seen some very innovative solutions coming out from Indian startups which they have not witnessed anywhere else in the world.