Qualcomm announces the winners of Qualcomm Design in India Challenge 2018

Qualcomm has announced the winners of Qualcomm Design in India Challenge 2018. Artelus India Pvt. Ltd. won the challenge while Mobiusworks Pvt. Ltd. and Chigroo Labs Pvt. Ltd. secured first and second runner-up spot respectively. This season, majority of the entries for Qualcomm Design in India Challenge were from the medtech space, followed by smart infrastructure, smart wearables and fintech.

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Qualcomm Incorporated today announced the winners of its Qualcomm Design in India Challenge 2018. Artelus India Pvt. Ltd. won the challenge while Mobiusworks Pvt. Ltd. and Cradlewise Chigroo Labs Pvt. Ltd. secured first and second runner-up spot respectively. The winner took home prize money of $100,000, while the runners-up received $75,000 and $50,000.

This season, majority of the entries for Qualcomm Design in India Challenge were from the medtech space, followed by smart infrastructure, smart wearables and fintech. The competition also recorded an increase in the number of women -led startups this year. To help these companies launch their products in the market, Qualcomm offered professional scaling workshops to all the startups. Qualcommis also offering IP patent filing incentives of up to USD 5,000 to each startup to boost innovation and encourage filing of patents.

Launched in 2016, the incubation and design accelerator program encourages startups to develop innovative hardware products using Qualcomm’s advanced technologies. With its fourth edition now open for registration, the program continues to spur research and development for products targeted at both domestic and export markets in wearables, machine learning, smart homes, smart cities, agritech, medtech, and fintech.

With the 2018 edition coming to an end, the program has supported 39 startups with an overall investment of over USD 12.3M out of 900 applicants in its three-year run. The program supports fast design cycles and time-to-market by utilizing Qualcomm’s longstanding presence in India. Qualcomm’s expertise helps Indian companies design and create products in the IoT space for global markets. While working with Qualcomm as part of the program, the startups have filed over 70 patents and launched more than 15 commercial products.

Qualcomm Design in India Challenge 2019 will focus on helping startups scale their businesses. Supported by Qualcomm, these companies will be incubated at the Qualcomm Innovation Labs in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Elements of the 2019 program include:

• Winners Prize Awards: At the end of the incubation period, the winner of 2019 and two runners up will be awarded with USD 100,000, USD 75,000 and USD 50,000 respectively.
• Patent Filing Incentive: Qualcomm will provide each startup an amount up to USD 5,000 for patent applications, filed with either the India PTO or the US PTO during the incubation phase of the program.
• Access to Accelerator Program Services: The startups will also have access to certain accelerator services at no additional cost, on various parameters such as series A and pre-series A pitch preparation, operations planning, industry connects, competitive landscape analysis, financials & cash flow and product management.