Otis and T-Hub Hold ‘Demo Day’ for Shortlisted start-ups of Innovation Challenge

Otis, the world’s leading manufacturer and maintainer of people-moving products, including elevators, escalators and moving walkways, and T-Hub, a global start-up catalyst for entrepreneurship and deal-flow, reviewed the proof-of-concepts (PoC) of the four start-ups that were shortlisted for the Otis Innovation Challenge, launched in June. Otis is a unit of United Technologies Corp. For the challenge, T-Hub initiated a call for applications from start-ups across the globe and received applications from 14 countries. From this pool, a total of four start-ups met the eligibility criteria. These shortlisted start-ups, which have emerging technology-based solutions that can integrate with Otis offerings, participated in a 6-week Otis Innovation Challenge. The selected start-ups got an opportunity to collaborate with Otis and enable innovative technology solutions. They also got the chance to scale-up by developing a PoC for a specific use case defined by Otis, with funding of up to $10,000 per start-up. On demo day, October 12, 2018, the cohort start-ups showcased their respective PoCs to key Otis executives for the final time. PoCs were based on smart solutions across functions that aim to improve the efficiency and utilization of elevators, escalators and travellators. The solutions were built on emerging technologies such as computer vision, signal processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, neural networks, facial recognition systems, crowd detection and management as well as people analytics. The winning start-ups will continue to further develop the PoCs by accessing Otis’ and T-Hub’s network of mentors, industry experts, investors, service providers, and community/ecosystem. “Otis is focused on innovation and continuously enhancing the way we move people. We look forward to the opportunity to work with these start-ups to find creative and smart solutions for our customers,” said Vijay Jayachandran, vice president, Global Components and Technologies, Otis. “We have a legacy of innovation, and open innovation challenges like these ensure we sustain our legacy in the rapidly changing market landscape.” Speaking on the occasion, Srinivas Kollipara, CEO, T-Hub said, “T-Hub has always stood by its commitment to supercharge innovation for corporations. For the Otis innovation challenge, we have shortlisted startups from UK, Argentina, Singapore and India from among the applications received from across the globe. It is through programs like this that more and more corporations believe in the power of entrepreneurs, and the goal to make a strong start-up ecosystem in the country is achieved.” The four start-ups that showcased their PoCs on demo day were:

• Graymatics
• Visio Ingenii (VI)
• Deep Vision AI
• Orbo AI