Lowe’s Companies’ Lowe’s Innovation Labs launches the first Indian cohort of its signature, stage-agnostic startup accelerator program, CONSTRUCT by Lowe’s Innovation Labs – a stage agnostic program designed to reimagine home improvement retail. The program was virtually launched yesterday. After a five-city roadshow conducted earlier this year, CONSTRUCT selected seven startups from across India representing different fields including merchandising, AI-driven trend forecasting, automated content generation, talent acquisition, hyper real AI and sustainable next-gen home construction technology.

Designed to be a flexible alternative to traditional corporate accelerators, CONSTRUCT will keep with Lowe’s Innovation Lab’s mission to use exponential technology to accelerate experiences that customers expect today. To deliver tomorrow’s breakthrough capabilities, the program is open to deep technology companies of all sizes and at all stages. Programming centres around highly personalized, one-on-one working relationships, access to internal and external mentors, and an emphasis on working together to reimagine prototype and ultimately bring to market the future of home improvement retail.

The seven participants of the first cohort include Stylumia (providing product insights through its AI-powered consumer-driven, demand-sensing engine for seen and unseen products), Infilect (helping brands and retailers in measuring, mentoring and improving retail processes through computer vision and AI Platforms), StoryXpress (end-to-end video marketing platform), Headway (talent acquisition powered by AI and behavioral science), Siddhi.ai (crafting actionable insights from vast, unstructured resources of the open web using AI),

We are launching our signature startup engagement program CONSTRUCT in India to reimagine and build the future of home improvement retail with startups that bring diverse global perspectives

Repharse.ai (building generative AI tools to make professional automated human-like videos), and Nanospan (focused on nanotechnology, producing grapheme and nano composites with applications in building the next-gen homes, defence tech and energy storage).

“India is home to a wide network of innovators developing solutions to global issues. We have set up CONSTRUCT as a way to partner with the brightest minds to reinvent home improvement retail. CONSTRUCT provides startups of all stages and sizes with an opportunity to apply their solutions in a highly conductive environment,” says Abhay Tandon, Director Innovation and Head of Lowe’s Innovation Labs – India.

Cheryl Friedman, Vice President, Lowe’s Innovation Labs, asserts, “We are launching our signature startup engagement program, CONSTRUCT, in India to reimagine and build the future of home improvement retail with startups that bring diverse, global perspectives”.

This startup accelerator program is designed around Lowe’s startup program, who receive personalized attention from functional and technical leaders at Lowe’s as well as external mentors from venture capitalist firms, companies and enablers.

Ankur Mittal, VP Technology & MD, Lowe’s India, adds, “Our vision at Lowe’s India is to transform home improvement retail by building world-class experiences for our customers with the right products and technology. Our focus has always been to use deep technologies such as AI, analytics and robotics to power tomorrow’s retail, and CONSTRUCT will help accelerate that work”.