FutureSites Innovation Program
Solving Retail's Biggest Challenges with the FutureSites Innovation Program
FutureSites is a joint initiative between CII CIES and a leading Retail Business Unit for Oil and Gas corporate partner designed to accelerate innovative retail technologies in India. The program enables startups to work on live operational challenges across store efficiency, modern infrastructure, and AI-powered customer engagement, helping them validate, pilot, and scale their solutions in real environments.
Last date to apply: 15 Feb 2026
Challenge 1: Agentic Store Operations Platform
Current Challenge:
Current store operations depend heavily on manual efforts, static rules, and human intervention, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistent execution. Stores need real-time, autonomous decision-making supported by sensor data, IoT devices, and integrated systems.
Our Vision:
Create an intelligent, autonomous platform that empowers frontline store teams. Imagine a system where agents continuously observe, interpret, and act on store conditions - optimizing inventory, maintenance, safety, and workflows - freeing staff to focus on delivering exceptional customer service.
Startup Focus Areas:
Current store operations depend heavily on manual efforts, static rules, and human intervention, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistent execution. Stores need real-time, autonomous decision-making supported by sensor data, IoT devices, and integrated systems.
Our Vision:
Create an intelligent, autonomous platform that empowers frontline store teams. Imagine a system where agents continuously observe, interpret, and act on store conditions - optimizing inventory, maintenance, safety, and workflows - freeing staff to focus on delivering exceptional customer service.
Startup Focus Areas:
- Developing agentic intelligence for autonomous observation and action
- Harnessing real-time insights from store sensors and systems
- Automating and optimizing workflows like replenishment, maintenance, and scheduling
- Enabling human-agent collaboration for faster decision-making
- Seamless integration with existing store and IoT systems
Challenge 2: Modernized, Observable Store & Head Office Infrastructure
Challenge:
Legacy, siloed systems for pricing, inventory, invoicing, and financials are costly, complex, and limit real-time visibility. This hampers agility and operational efficiency.
Our Vision:
Build a modular, lightweight, and fully observable infrastructure that simplifies operations, enhances visibility, and supports rapid innovation across stores and head office.
Startup Focus Areas:
Legacy, siloed systems for pricing, inventory, invoicing, and financials are costly, complex, and limit real-time visibility. This hampers agility and operational efficiency.
Our Vision:
Build a modular, lightweight, and fully observable infrastructure that simplifies operations, enhances visibility, and supports rapid innovation across stores and head office.
Startup Focus Areas:
- Creating interoperable, modular components to replace legacy systems
- Delivering end-to-end observability for infrastructure health and performance
- Facilitating real-time data integration between store and head office systems
- Developing cost-effective, flexible operational models
- Standardized APIs for partner and dealer integrations
Challenge 3: AI-Enabled Customer 360 Personalization & Offers
Challenge:
Fragmented customer data across channels limits personalized engagement. Relying on broad segments and generic offers reduces relevance and affects margins.
Our Vision:
Deliver a seamless, personalized experience that recognizes customers across all channels—fueling, charging, shopping, and digital services—creating meaningful, context-aware interactions.
Startup Focus Areas:
Fragmented customer data across channels limits personalized engagement. Relying on broad segments and generic offers reduces relevance and affects margins.
Our Vision:
Deliver a seamless, personalized experience that recognizes customers across all channels—fueling, charging, shopping, and digital services—creating meaningful, context-aware interactions.
Startup Focus Areas:
- Building a unified, privacy-safe customer identity across channels
- Creating real-time, enriched Customer 360 profiles with behavioral and contextual signals
- Developing AI-driven personalized offers, recommendations, and next-best actions
- Connecting fragmented customer journeys into seamless, multi-channel experiences
- Ensuring scalable integration with internal systems and external partners for real-time personalization
Why Join the FutureSites Innovation Program?
FutureSites Innovation Program is designed for startups that are ready to scale - not just experiment. By working on clearly-defined business challenges with an enterprise partner, startups gain a faster path to market access, validation and revenue.
Startups selected for the programme benefit from:
- Higher pilot conversion probability
- Faster path to paid deployments
- Hands-on product and GTM guidance from CXOs and technology leaders
- Nationwide rollout potential
- Structured validation and credibility
Who Should Apply
Applications from high-potential startups building scalable technology solutions.
Ideal applicants should meet most of the following:
- Your solution directly addresses the defined problem statements.
- Your product is already tested or in early deployments.
- Founders or team members with relevant domain expertiseYour solution is built to scale technically, operationally and commercially.
- Ready to run a pilot within 6-12 months
Timelines
Call for Applications
January 2025
Screening & Shortlisting
February 2025
Founder Discussions & Evaluation
February 2025
Final Selection & Onboarding
March 2025
Demo Day
2nd Week of April
FAQs
Is there any fee to apply or participate?
No - there is no application or participation fee.
Can I submit more than one solution?
Yes - multiple applications are allowed if your startup solves more than one challenge area.
Can international startups apply?
Yes - provided you can operate or deploy pilots in India.
Will the program take equity?
No equity is taken for participation in the program unless separately structured through a mutually agreed investment.
Who can I contact for support or clarification?
You may write to Ms Priyanka Mukhija (priyanka.mukhija@cii.in) for any clarity.
For more information, please write to:
Ms Priyanka Mukhija
priyanka.mukhija@cii.in
priyanka.mukhija@cii.in
