IAI has launched a new India Innovation Program called NeuSPHERE. (Israel Aerospace Industries)
JERUSALEM — Israel Aerospace Industries is seeking to support start-up companies in India via a new program, as the company seeks to expand its relationships with a major market for Israeli goods, IAI CEO Boaz Levy told Breaking Defense in a recent interview.
The NeuSPHERE Innovation Acceleration Program, announced in November, will see IAI giving Indian startups funding, as well as technical and marketing expertise, in order to help push capabilities into the market. It builds off “over 40 years of mutual work” with India, Levy said, but better reflects the current goals of the Modi government’s Make in India effort, which emphasizes the need to produce locally.
“We need to tune ourselves and find the right ways to work together according to the new regulations in India,” Levy said in an interview conducted last month. “This is why we decided our new strategy will be holding of several companies in India that will support our programs in India.
Per a company statement, NeuSPHERE is “aimed at focusing on the Indian technology startup community, in particular inventive deep-tech startups focusing on big data, signal and image processing, advanced navigation systems, AI and autonomy, XR-maintenance and training, green energy, advanced production, quantum, edge computing, Human Machine Interfaces and wearable technology.”
Those technologies align efforts IAI has also made in Israel to invest in start-ups and take advantage of Israel’s nimble market that pushed new technology to the battlefield based on operational successes. IAI also opened a similar program to support innovation in the US.
Levy stated that the company has already opened its first NeuSPHERE office New Delhi, but did not specify how many startups were involved or when the first partnership with local startups would begin. He sees the program as a gateway for better engineering processes and capabilities “that we will demonstrate for our Indian users.”
He added that “the program is to build up technology. If the technology is there as a startup, then we will invest, but if this tech can bring benefits to our products then it could be a [joint venture], and that is a case by case situation and we are exploring.
“It is a long journey and time will tell,” he said, noting IAI plans to work to figure out what works best for each startup individually.
India is a major market for Israel and a strategic partner of Israel, but Israeli defense companies also have relations with many other countries in the region, such as Singapore, Australia, South Korea and Vietnam. Asked whether he sees the work they are now doing in India as forming a hub for the wider region, Levy answered positively, but stressed that the focus is on the Indian market.
“It is a hub for IAI, a lot of our production has been done in India, some is part of the offset and some continues deliveries to other customers as well,” he says. “We believe that the innovation program is a great starting point and we will continue to support it and see if we can make it as a platform for future collaborations with India.”
Outside of the startup interest, IAI recently launched a new facility in Hyderabad. This site is involved in the maintenance of radars and is run by HELA systems.
In addition IAI continues to be part of a multi-billion dollar deal that dates back almost a decade with India to develop missile systems. These systems, known as MR-SAM in India, are part of IAI’s Barak family.
“Barak is continuing in the three services in India and we are proud with the DRDO collaboration and the three armed services and I think that it symbolizes the good work we are doing together for the benefit of our two nations and more,” Levy said.
