Hyderabad, Aug 27: T-Hub, the world’s largest home for startups, and Honda Digital Innovation India have partnered to launch Honda Innovation Challenge 2.0, a programme to co-build digital mobility and customer experience solutions with Indian startups.
Building on the success of Honda Innovation Challenge 1.0, the partnership is expanding into a year-long programme with three new challenges and a total funding of up to ₹4.8 crore. Each challenge will select four startups eligible for up to ₹40 lakh to develop proof-of-concept projects with Honda teams. This is an increase of up to fourfold from the ₹10 lakh available under the first challenge. Successful PoCs can then progress to pilots and potential integration with Honda’s products or services.
Selected startups will work directly with Honda’s engineering and business teams during the 12-week sprint to build solutions for real-world mobility and customer experience applications. They will also gain access to Honda’s operational insights, testing environments and deployment support, alongside T-Hub’s mentorship, network and resources, to accelerate solution development and progress towards pilots and potential integration. Through industry mixers, the programme will bring together startups, Honda teams, customers, SMEs, VCs and other industry stakeholders to bring diverse perspectives into the co-development process and shape solutions around real-world mobility needs.
Sharing the vision for Honda Challenge 2.0, Mr. Toshiyuki Yanagisawa, CEO, Honda Digital Innovation India said,
“Honda Digital Innovation brings together two important elements: the transformation of people’s lives through digital technology, and the value that we want the Honda brand to create. Our mission is to explore and deliver new forms of value that can make people’s lives better. And Honda Innovation Challenge is the platform where we bring together people who share that ambition – people who have new ideas, new technologies, and the passion to create a better future for customers.”
Commenting on the partnership, Kavikrut, CEO, T-Hub, said:
“Industries are solving increasingly complex problems, but building every solution in-house can take significant time and resources. Startups bring speed, agility and specialised capabilities to address these challenges. At T-Hub, we bring our industry partners and founders together to co-build solutions around real business needs and move them towards deployment. With automotive being an early adopter of technology, our partnership with Honda creates an opportunity to build in India and take these solutions to the world.”
Honda Innovation Challenge 2.0 is now open to startups across India, offering founders access to T-Hub’s mentorship and industry network to build with Honda, validate against real business requirements and progress towards commercial integration.
In May’26, Honda Innovation Challenge 1.0 selected four startups – Attento Technologies, Xane AI, SenSight Technologies and AppTestify. Their solutions were validated in collaboration with Honda teams and supported by insights from dealership data across India. The PoCs addressed driver behaviour, vehicle resale value, customer understanding and customer experience, and are now being evaluated for potential pilots and commercial integration with Honda.
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