AgHub

Choosing the right programme

• Have a working prototype or IP and want hands-on support? Apply to the Incubation Program.
• Building an agritech product that needs field testing with farmers? Look at Agritech Innovation Pilots.
• Want to co-develop a product with AgHub/PJTAU rather than build alone? Co-innovation is the route.
• Already at growth stage as a startup, SME or mid-sized company? Enterprise Acceleration is for later-stage ventures.
• A current PJTAU student or researcher testing an idea? Student Incubation and the Design Thinking programme are built for you.
• Based in or near Jagtial, Warangal or Vikarabad? The Rural Innovation Spokes bring incubation support to rural entrepreneurs, farmers and FPOs locally.
• Need funding rather than mentoring space? Bootstrap Grant Assistance and Catalytic Capital Assistance are AgHub's two grant calls.

How the grant calls work

• Both Bootstrap Grant Assistance and Catalytic Capital Assistance open in numbered calls with their own deadline, rather than staying open all year — AgHub has run at least five calls of each so far.
• Each call is announced with an online application form and a separate guidelines document; watch AgHub's website and its social channels for when a new call opens.
• Bootstrap Grant Assistance is meant for early-stage ideas: innovators or startups who already own the technology know-how or IP, or who are working towards a prototype. PJTAU student entrepreneurs (especially those who came through Design Thinking) and existing AgHub incubatees are also eligible.
• Catalytic Capital Assistance is aimed at startups already operating in agriculture and rural development, across agritech, animal husbandry, biotech, dairy tech, food tech, poultry tech, meat tech and agribusiness.

What AgHub looks for

• Ownership of the underlying technology or IP, or visible progress towards a working prototype.
• A clear fit with agri-food, agritech, agribusiness or rural development — AgHub's programmes are agriculture-specific, not generalist.
• For the Agritech Innovation Pilots route, a technology that is ready to be tested in a real farmer's field, not just a lab demo.
• For the two student-facing tracks, a live connection to PJTAU — most of the Design Thinking and Student Incubation programmes are built around PJTAU's own undergraduate, postgraduate and AELP cohorts.

Getting in touch

For general queries, write to community@ag-hub.co. AgHub's corporate office phone is 040-23014515, and the Innovation Hub is on the PJTAU campus, State Bank Road, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad.

AgHub is an agri and food-tech incubator based at Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTAU) in Hyderabad. It is a Section 8 non-profit company recognised by NABARD as a Rural Business Incubation Centre, and it runs on a hub-and-spoke model: a central Innovation Hub on the PJTAU campus, plus three Rural Innovation Spokes in Jagtial, Warangal and Vikarabad that take the same support out into Telangana's smaller towns.

How programmes work

AgHub's programmes split into two kinds. Standing programmes run more or less continuously: Incubation for early-stage founders and student innovators, Agritech Innovation Pilots for testing a technology directly with farmers, Co-innovation for joint product development with the university, Enterprise Acceleration for growth-stage ventures, and a Design Thinking curriculum for PJTAU undergraduates and postgraduates. Alongside these, AgHub runs two named funding calls in numbered rounds — Bootstrap Grant Assistance and Catalytic Capital Assistance – Seed Fund Support — each opened and closed on its own announced dates rather than staying open year-round.

Who can apply

The programmes cover a wide range of founder types: registered startups with a working technology or prototype, PJTAU student entrepreneurs (particularly those who have been through the Design Thinking course), and rural entrepreneurs, farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations, self-help groups and grassroots innovators working through the rural spokes. Bootstrap Grant Assistance and Catalytic Capital both focus on agri-food and allied businesses, agritech, agribusiness, biotech, dairy tech, poultry tech and meat tech.

Facilities

AgHub's own building offers coworking space, and it also runs the SBI ARISA Lab, a facility for AI, robotics and IoT research in smart farming, with a data centre and an AI-focused unit used for crop-disease detection and irrigation-management research. Beyond this, AgHub gives its incubatees access to PJTAU's wider research infrastructure — the university's own quality-control, pesticide-residue, biological-control and seed-technology labs, among others.

Scale

AgHub reports having nurtured 124+ startups, with 1,500+ more in its pipeline, and having supported 22+ bootstrap grantees. It says 50+ of its startups have gone on to raise venture capital and that it has directly invested in 11. It has run seven Design Thinking programmes reaching 3,650+ students, and its rural programmes report reaching 10,000+ farmers. These are AgHub's own published figures.

Who runs it

AgHub sits between two larger institutions rather than under either of them: it is its own company, but PJTAU's Vice-Chancellor chairs its Board and PJTAU's Registrar is a Director, while NABARD — which sanctioned AgHub's bootstrap grant fund — holds nominee director seats. Day-to-day, AgHub is led by its Managing Director. The Board also includes independent directors from industry, and AgHub's Programme Management & Review Committee brings in outside voices from investment, banking and entrepreneurship-support organisations.

Locations

AgHub's Innovation Hub is on the PJTAU campus on State Bank Road, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. Its three Rural Innovation Spokes sit inside PJTAU's own regional agricultural research stations: at Polasa in Jagtial district, at Tandur in Vikarabad district, and at the Regional Agricultural Research Station in Warangal.