MOL and IIT Bombay SINE Sign MoU to Accelerate Innovation and Deep-Tech Collaboration

December 17, 2025

TOKYO-Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Takeshi Hashimoto) today announced that Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (India) Pvt. Ltd. (MOL India; Headquarters: Mumbai) and the Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE) at IIT Bombay have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly advance innovation, deep-tech startup engagement, and knowledge exchange. The collaboration strengthens MOL's commitment to exploring next-generation technologies with potential applications across logistics, maritime operations, energy transition, and broader social infrastructure domains.

Under the MoU, MOL India and SINE will share technical insights and industry perspectives through ongoing interactions to identify emerging trends and areas of mutual interest. With support from SINE, MOL India will engage with promising startups from IIT Bombay's ecosystem and beyond, creating opportunities for joint evaluations, feedback sessions, and the exploration of pilots, technology trials, or strategic collaborations. Any structured innovation program or formal call for applications will be developed separately based on mutual agreement.

The parties also intend to explore the co-design of thematic innovation initiatives, technology challenges, and accelerator-linked activities in areas of shared relevance. MOL India may nominate experts or senior professionals to participate as mentors or jury members in SINE's programs, offering startups access to real-world industry insights while allowing MOL to gain visibility into emerging deep-tech capabilities.

Through this MoU, MOL India and SINE aim to meaningfully contribute to India's innovation ecosystem by fostering solutions that can enhance industry competitiveness and support progress toward a more technologically advanced and sustainable future.

【About MOL (India) Private Limited】
Headquartered in Mumbai, MOL (India) Private Limited is the regional hub of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), one of the world's most trusted shipping and infrastructure companies with over 140 years of maritime heritage. We enable trade, transport, energy, and integrated logistics across South Asia and the Middle East.
Our portfolio includes energy shipping (LNG, VLCCs, VLGCs), automobile logistics (RoRo), dry bulk, project cargo, warehousing, freight forwarding, ship management, manning, and clean energy. Through MOL Logistics India, we deliver future-ready supply chain solutions, with deep capabilities in cold chain management, regulatory-compliant warehousing, and pharmaceutical logistics.
We partner with Indian PSUs, private sector leaders, and global energy majors to deliver reliable, sustainable, and tech-enabled supply chains. Our operations are anchored by Indian-flagged vessels, advanced digital platforms, and a growing local workforce.
MOL is committed to long-term value through safety, sustainability, and social impact aligned with MOL Group's global Blue Action 2035 vision.

【About Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) IIT Bombay】
Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) is a technology business incubator (TBI) at IIT Bombay established in 2004 and is an umbrella organization for fostering entrepreneurship. SINE provides start-to-scale up support to early-stage startups. Typically, incubation support is provided for a period of 3 years.
SINE has been identified as Centre for Excellence by Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. Funds have been granted to support infrastructure and operating requirements of SINE. Under 'Centre of Excellence' SINE has set up its larger incubation infrastructure spread over ~70,000 sq. ft of area, that would include office space, lab space viz Metal working, Mechanical, Bio Labs, Chem labs, Electronics and prototyping facilities, Co working facilities and shared facilities like meeting rooms, seminar rooms etc and can support around 90-100 startups and innovators.
SINE is a broad spectrum TBI, having supported over 500 startups in various technology areas. The sectors supported largely consist of MedTech/Healthcare, CleanTech, Mobility, AgriTech, FinTech, EdTech and others with emerging technologies such as AI/ML, Blockchain, IoT, AR/VR.

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MOL Group 5 Sustainability Issues
MOL Group identifies "Sustainability Issues" (Materiality) as our key issues for sustainable growth with society through realization of the Group Vision.
We anticipate this initiative to contribute especially to the realization of "Innovation -Innovation for development in marine technology-."