14 cool hardware startups in India you didn’t know about

Bangalore-based Aerx Labs makes flight simulators, devices that artificially recreate the flying experience, as well as drones.

India is known more for software than hardware and systems innovations. But things are changing with new opportunities coming up in IoT (internet of things), drones, and cloud-based technologies.

The biggest challenge hardware and systems startups face is the lack of a well-developed ecosystem for them in India. For example, innovations in this domain require lab facilities for testing products and taking them to market.

Here is where Intel’s Maker Lab for India, launched at the beginning of this year, can make a big difference by providing infrastructure, tools, and mentorship. This week, the first 17 startups to gain from this not-for-profit program were showcased at Intel India’s HQ in Bangalore.

Nine of those startups have already launched their products in the market, five startups are moving to customer trial stage, and the remaining three are in the design stage, says Intel in a statement on the program.

The Indian government has been promoting its Digital India and Make in India initiatives to improve the tech infrastructure in the country and to give manufacturing a boost. The Intel Maker Lab aims to play a part in that. “Innovation is the key ingredient for making the Digital India vision a reality,” points out Nivruti Rai, general manager of Intel India and vice president of the Platform Engineering Group at Intel Corp.

The 17 startups from the Intel Maker Lab cover a wide range of domains like education, sports, health, agriculture, finance, and e-governance. “These solutions will help solve real consumer and business needs… This initiative is not designed towards building or augmenting Intel India’s own R&D activities,” says Jitendra Chaddah, senior director for strategy and operations at Intel India.

See: Sequoia-backed Creo has stopped making smartphones 6 months after launch. Here’s why

Here’s a look at the 14 startups from the Intel India Maker Lab whose products and solutions are ready for the market:

Photo credit: Aerx Labs.

Aerx Labs

This is one unusual startup. Aerx Labs makes flight simulators, devices that artificially recreate the flying experience, as well as drones. The simulators are important to train pilots as well as design, develop, and test flights. The startup promises that its products replicate “the equations that govern flight physics, flight controls, and the effects of other aircraft systems; allowing the user to play with air density, turbulence, wind shear, cloud, precipitation, etc.” It has multiple patent filings around safety, security, efficiency, and productivity of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.

Avench

Avench offers technologies on various embedded engineering platforms. It provides IoT systems with different modes of connectivity like wifi, lora, GPRS, and so on. It offers customization of Linux kernel and other boot loaders, and supports embedded product design and engineering.

Green Ocean Research

Green Ocean Research makes ergonomic medical devices for preventive healthcare, designed with a focus on ease of use and portability. It has built a medical diagnostic platform to monitor multiple parameters such as blood glucose, blood pressure, and pulse oximetry. These can be used by individuals as well as health care providers.

Jayalaxmi Agrotech

Klassik Klonec

Parkzap

Skylark Drones

Smartron

Terrablue XT

Acceleron Lab

BrownLogic

Phoenix Robotics

SrishtiESDM

Yaw software