Wadhwani Foundation

Pick the programme that matches your business

• Any business, at any stage, can start with Liftoff, which is an online advisor rather than a cohort.
• Accelerate is for businesses that already earn steady revenue, have a growing customer base and healthy cash flow. If you are pre-revenue, it is not the right door.
• The Academy is for the senior and mid-management teams of SMEs, not for first-time founders.
• Ignite is for students and is arranged through a college or institution.
• The Innovation Network centres are for researchers and academic institutions. A startup can take part only with a faculty partner.

How applications work

• Liftoff: sign in or create an account on the Liftoff site.
• Accelerate: use the application form linked from the programme page.
• The Academy: use the Join Now or Apply Here button on the programme page.
• Ignite: institutions can request a demo or join an executive session; students enrol from the programme page.
• General questions can go to marketing@wfglobal.org.

Check availability first

• The foundation's pages disagree on whether Accelerate and the Academy are open. One page lists them as coming soon, while their own pages carry apply buttons and a notice that they are unavailable in some regions.
• Do not plan around a fixed cohort date or duration for Liftoff. The foundation does not state one.

What reviewers look for in Accelerate

• Steady revenues and a growing customer base
• Investment already made in capacity and scale
• Financial stability with healthy cash flows
• Committed founders or business owners

The foundation does not describe how it selects among applicants beyond calling the programme highly selective.

Wadhwani Foundation is a global non-profit founded by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani. It describes itself as the global philanthropic brand for the work of two organisations, Wadhwani Charitable Foundation and Wadhwani Operating Foundation, with a mission to speed up economic development in emerging economies by creating large-scale, family-sustaining jobs. In India, its entrepreneurship programmes are delivered by an independent local non-profit, the National Entrepreneurship Network, based in Bengaluru.

How the programmes work

The foundation's entrepreneurship work is organised under a few named programmes: Wadhwani Liftoff, Wadhwani Accelerate, Liftoff Academy for SMEs and Wadhwani Ignite. They are aimed at different people. Liftoff is open to any business. Accelerate is for businesses that already have steady revenue. The Academy is for management teams of small and medium enterprises. Ignite is for students and runs through colleges and other institutions.

It is not a place that gives out cash through a single application. Most of what these programmes offer is advice, learning, certification and introductions. Check each programme page for the current terms before you plan around it.

Wadhwani Liftoff

The foundation's current pages describe Liftoff as an AI-powered business growth advisor for any business. It helps founders assess how ready they are, work out their growth priorities, and connect with mentors and experts. Founders use it at their own pace, on their own schedule, and sign in through Liftoff's own site.

Liftoff has been described differently over time. A 2024 version of the programme page presented it as a tailored journey for early-stage, prototype-stage and MVP-stage startups with a fully committed team and a runway of at least six months. That page also said participation was free. The current pages describe a platform instead, and they do not give a duration. If you see Liftoff described elsewhere as a fixed-length cohort run with another partner, confirm it with the foundation before relying on it.

Wadhwani Accelerate

Accelerate is described as a highly selective programme for growth-stage ventures, meaning startups and SMBs that are ready to scale fast. The foundation lists who it is looking for: businesses with steady revenues and a growing customer base, that have invested in capacity and scale, are financially stable with healthy cash flows, and are led by committed founders or business owners. There is an application form linked from the programme page. The foundation's pages are not consistent on whether Accelerate is open: one page marks it as coming soon, while the programme page has an apply link and also carries a notice that it is unavailable in some regions.

Liftoff Academy for SMEs

The Academy is a free certification programme of 10 to 12 weeks for senior and mid-management teams of SMEs. It focuses on leadership, operational excellence and cross-functional execution. The certification is awarded jointly by Wadhwani Foundation and AIMA. This is management training, not funding. As with Accelerate, one page lists it as coming soon while the programme page has a join button and a regional availability notice.

Wadhwani Ignite

Ignite gives students a real experience of entrepreneurship while they are still in college. It reaches students through institutions, so a college contacts the foundation to bring it in, and students enrol through their institution. The foundation says it has worked with over a thousand institutions and supported more than 150,000 entrepreneurial journeys.

Research and innovation centres

The Wadhwani Innovation Network sets up Centres of Excellence at academic institutes, working with AICTE and institutes such as the IITs, IISc and C-CAMP. Its aim is to drive interdisciplinary research and innovation in areas that include artificial intelligence, semiconductor technology, quantum computing, bioengineering, healthtech, biotechnology and synthetic biology. This is a route for researchers and academic institutions, not a general door for founders. In March 2026 the centre at IIT Hyderabad invited project proposals; that call closed on 31 March 2026, and startups could take part only by working with an IIT Hyderabad faculty member.

Who can apply

It depends on the programme. Liftoff is for any business. Accelerate is for growth-stage startups and SMBs with revenue. The Academy is for SME management teams. Ignite is for students, through their institutions. The Innovation Network centres work with faculty, research groups and, through faculty, startups. Early-stage founders without revenue should look at Liftoff first.

Scale

The foundation's own pages report these figures, and we have not checked them independently. The homepage says it has supported over 10,000 SMBs and startups and enabled over 400,000 aspiring entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurship page gives a lower count of over 7,000 startups supported, which covers a narrower group, and says over 250 incubators have been partnered to help startups find funding.

Who runs it

The foundation says local organisations design, run and take responsibility for its programmes in each country. In India these are the National Entrepreneurship Network, which handles entrepreneurship development, ecosystem development and AI platform initiatives, and the Skills Development Network. The foundation's United States office is in Los Altos, California. The India address listed for the National Entrepreneurship Network is in Bengaluru.

Other work

The foundation also runs skilling programmes, a government digital transformation centre and an electronics lab at IIT Bombay, and Wadhwani AI is a separate institute. We found no route for founders to apply to any of these.