Meet The Startups That Won The Ericsson Innovation Challenge 2026

At the India Mobile Congress 2026, telecom and network infrastructure company Ericsson announced the winners of its Ericsson Innovation Challenge. The competition sought startups that could leverage 5G, AI and emerging connectivity technologies to address real-world challenges. Ericsson organized the challenge in partnership with IAN Mentoring and Incubation Services and TiE Delhi NCR, evaluating innovations based on societal impact, innovation, scalability, sustainability and alignment with their problem areas.

Ericsson showcased the winning startups alongside their demonstrations of AI, programmable networks, differentiated connectivity and mission-critical networks, emphasizing the potential for these networks to support India's future innovations.

Torchit, founded in 2016 by Hunny Bhagchandani and Mohit N Chelani, won the competition. The Ahmedabad-based startup develops affordable devices and AI-powered solutions for people with disabilities. Their products include Saarthi, a smart mobility aid that assists users in detecting obstacles, and Jyoti AI Smart Glasses, which can read text, recognize objects and describe surroundings.

Skye Air Mobility, established in 2019 and headquartered in Delhi NCR, won with its autonomous drone platform for last-mile deliveries. The company's technology combines drones with an unmanned traffic management system, utilizing a Hub-Pod-Walker model to streamline package delivery.

scanO, founded in 2020 by Vidhi Bhanushali and Rajat Kabade, based in Pune, secured the third spot. The healthtech startup offers automated dental screening and diagnostic support, using its scanO Air device to detect over 40 oral conditions in approximately 12 seconds.

Okulo Aerospace, founded in 2019 by Parithi Govindaraju and Abiseka Akash Ganesan, based in Bengaluru, claimed the fourth position. The company develops solar-electric, long-endurance UAVs and High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS) for surveillance, monitoring and data collection, targeting applications in defense, agriculture, environmental monitoring and disaster management.

Proxgy, a deeptech startup founded in 2020 by Pulkit Ahuja and headquartered in Delhi NCR, received the fifth spot. The company builds smart wearables and safety products for blue-collar workers, employing an industrial IoT hardware layer, software middleware layer, and SaaS subscription layer. KissanAI, founded in 2019 by Pratik Desai, Chintan P and Lokesh Desai, based in Surat, was awarded the sixth place.

The agriculture-focused startup develops AI models and agentic AI systems for farmers and agribusinesses, including Dhenu, a family of agriculture-focused LLMs and vision models, and a multilingual, voice-first AI assistant providing farmers with crop advisory, pest-management and market information.