Ahmedabad University

Choosing the right scheme

• If you are building a physical product and have only an idea, NIDHI-PRAYAS is the prototyping route — but it is not accepting applications right now, so check the page before you plan around it.
• If you want to work on your idea full time and need personal income support, NIDHI-EIR is the fellowship route. It is also paused at the moment, and it is closed to anyone currently enrolled in a full-time course.
• If you already have an MVP and want seed investment, the NIDHI Seed Support Programme is the one that is open. It invests through a convertible instrument rather than giving a grant, so expect to negotiate terms.
• If you are DPIIT-recognised and under two years old, the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme is applied for on the national portal, naming Ahmedabad University Support Foundation as your preferred incubator.
• If you are a student, alumnus or dropout anywhere in Gujarat and under 35, the Student Startup and Innovation Policy scheme is yours. It does not fund software, app or e-commerce projects.
• If you are a Gujarat-based founder or registered company, the Government of Gujarat Startup Scheme runs through VentureStudio as a nodal institute.

How applications work

• The schemes that are open link to their own application form from their page; the Startup India scheme is applied for on the national portal instead.
• If you are not sure which scheme fits, use the enquiry form on the site and pick "Funding Schemes", or email the main VentureStudio inbox at vs@ahduni.edu.in.
• For lab or workshop access rather than funding, the Bio-NEST and Prayas Shala facilities have their own inboxes, and outside founders can book them on a pay-per-use basis.
• The Seed Support Programme expects at least three months of association with the incubator before it invests, so start the relationship early rather than applying cold.

How selection works

• Applications are screened first for feasibility, innovation and relevance, then shortlisted applicants pitch to a jury or selection committee.
• Selected teams sign an agreement and co-define milestones with the VentureStudio team before any money moves.
• Money is released in tranches against those milestones, with progress reports, reviews and utilisation certificates required along the way. A grant can be stopped for non-performance.
• For the Startup India scheme, an Incubator Seed Management Committee assesses need, feasibility, potential impact, novelty, team strength and your plan for using the funds.

What reviewers look for

• A clear unique selling proposition backed by real customer validation, not just a description of the technology.
• For the prototyping grant, a physical product you can realistically finish within twelve months, with the intellectual property vesting in you or your company.
• Indian ownership: most of these schemes require at least 51 per cent Indian promoter shareholding, and subsidiaries of foreign companies are excluded.
• A credible plan for what the money buys. Every scheme lists what funds may and may not be spent on, and salaries, rent, loan repayment and personal expenses are generally out.
• No double-dipping: if you already hold government support for the same idea, say so — most of these schemes bar it.

VentureStudio is the startup incubator of Ahmedabad University, on the university's North and Central campuses at Navrangpura in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. It says it was established in 2011 in collaboration with Stanford University's Center for Design Research, and it runs six government funding schemes, a fabrication shop, a biotech lab and a coworking hub from there. Most of what it offers is open to founders with no connection to the university.

Who can apply

This is the question most often got wrong about a university incubator, so it is worth being precise. VentureStudio's funding schemes are national and state government schemes that it administers, and their eligibility rules are set by those schemes, not by the university. NIDHI-PRAYAS is open to any Indian citizen over 18, or any company incorporated in India that is under seven years old with at least 51 per cent Indian shareholding and no significant revenue. NIDHI-EIR is open to any Indian citizen who has completed four years of full-time science or engineering higher education, or a three-year degree or diploma plus two years of work experience. The NIDHI Seed Support Programme is open to any company registered in India with at least 51 per cent Indian promoter shareholding that has an MVP and at least three months of association with the incubator, resident or virtual. The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme is open to DPIIT-recognised startups incorporated less than two years ago. The Government of Gujarat Startup Scheme is open to individuals, teams and registered entities based in Gujarat.

Only one scheme is student-facing, and even that one is not restricted to Ahmedabad University. The Student Startup and Innovation Policy scheme is a Government of Gujarat programme open to any person in Gujarat up to 35 years old who is a school, diploma, vocational, undergraduate, postgraduate or doctoral student, an alumnus, or a dropout from a school, institute or university. It excludes professors and academics who teach, and it excludes software, e-commerce, service and app-only projects.

There are exclusions worth reading before you apply. NIDHI-EIR is not open to a student currently enrolled in a full-time academic programme, nor to the promoter of an existing funded startup. NIDHI-PRAYAS is only for building a physical product, not for scaling, marketing or manufacturing, and not for anyone already carrying significant government support for the same idea. The Seed Support Programme will not consider a startup below MVP stage, a non-technology idea, or an Indian subsidiary of a foreign company. The Startup India scheme does not take individual applicants without an incorporated entity, sole proprietorships or public limited companies.

How programmes work

VentureStudio describes one incubation model across its schemes. You apply and are screened, then pitch to a selection committee or jury. Selected teams set milestones for product development, market validation and business growth with the VentureStudio team. Funding is then released in tranches as those milestones are met, with regular reviews to track progress and correct course, and a graduation stage aimed at market entry and follow-on investment. The grant schemes say plainly that funds come with reporting obligations, utilisation certificates and monitoring committees, so plan for the administration as well as the build.

Two of the six schemes are not taking applications at the moment. Both the NIDHI-PRAYAS prototyping grant and the NIDHI-EIR founder fellowship carry a line on their pages saying VentureStudio is not accepting applications and to check back. The Seed Support Programme, the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme, the Gujarat student scheme and the Government of Gujarat Startup Scheme all carry live application links.

Facilities

VentureStudio runs three facilities of its own. The Coworking and Events Hub at Gate No 4 has coworking and office space for startups, two indoor event spaces that double as classrooms, an outdoor amphitheatre, the administrative offices and a cafe. DST Prayas Shala is a fabrication shop for hardware and engineering teams, with a design cell, additive rapid prototyping, subtractive manufacturing, an electronics section and technical staff on hand. BIRAC Bio-NEST is the biotech and life-science facility, with a 24-seater biochemistry wet lab, an instrumentation lab, microbiology and cell culture labs, a cell and tissue culture lab, shared workspace and backed-up power.

It also facilitates access to Ahmedabad University's own resources, which belong to the university rather than to the incubator: an auditorium seating over 100 with livestreaming support, the STEPWELL high-performance computing clusters for simulation and AI work, and an open-air drone testing area.

You do not have to be an incubatee to use the space. VentureStudio says the coworking space, Prayas Shala and Bio-NEST are available to outside entrepreneurs and professionals on a pay-per-use basis, with published usage guidelines and pricing.

Scale

The numbers on its site are self-reported and undated. Its track record section claims over 170 startups supported since 2011, more than 80 meetups and capacity-building workshops, 50 prototypes or products developed at its facilities, over 40 intellectual property rights secured, more than 600 employment opportunities created and 26 startups recognised with national or international awards. Its own incubatee directory lists about 101 named companies, filterable by scheme and by sector, so the two figures do not match exactly.

Named companies in that directory span medtech, agritech, cleantech, industrial technology and software: Pragmatech Healthcare, Earth Tatva, Univia, Nawgati Tech, Clear Meat, Trinano Technologies, Endlos Innovations, Zybra, Synersense, Vidcare Innovations, Thothica and Hyperlab among them. Myplan8 and BharatGodam Solutions are featured on the home page.

Recognitions

VentureStudio states on its own pages that it is an approved DST Technology Business Incubator recognised by the National Science Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, an approved BIRAC Bio-NEST facility, an approved DST Prayas Shala prototyping centre under NIDHI-PRAYAS, and a Government of Gujarat nodal institute for the state's startup schemes. It also asks Startup India Seed Fund applicants to select Ahmedabad University Support Foundation as their preferred incubator, which is the university's legal entity for these schemes. None of these pages state a funding period, so how long each recognition runs cannot be told from the site.

Who runs it and where to find them

The team page names Nilesh Dattani as startup portfolio lead, coach and mentor, Arpit Shukla as incubation manager for Bio-NEST, Charu Jain as ecosystem catalyst, Bharti Banwari as manager of operations and administration, Arun Lokhande as finance manager, and technical staff for the fabrication shop. VentureStudio publishes an events page, and it works with CII's Western Region Startup Taskforce, the FICCI Gujarat Startup Taskforce, the Government of Gujarat Startup Scheme special task force, a BIRAC Regional Innovation Center, GVFL Limited, TiE Ahmedabad, the Wadhwani Foundation and the International Financial Services Centres Authority.

How to apply: the general route is the enquiry form on the VentureStudio site, where you pick whether you are a student, a startup or industry and what you want, or you can write to vs@ahduni.edu.in. Each funding scheme page has its own application link.