Agri Food Business Incubation Centre (AFBIC), IIT Kharagpur

Overview

The Agri Food Business Incubation Centre (AFBIC) at IIT Kharagpur is an agri-food incubator hosted within the institute's research ecosystem. Funded under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare's RKVY-RAFTAAR Agri-Business Incubator (R-ABI) programme, the centre supports startups working on agriculture, food processing, and allied technology areas.

Focus Areas

AFBIC focuses on ventures in agri-inputs, farm mechanisation, precision agriculture, post-harvest and food processing technologies, agri-biotechnology, supply chain and logistics for agri-food, and allied rural enterprise. Startups benefit from IIT Kharagpur's strengths in agricultural and food engineering, biotechnology, and applied sciences.

Programs and Support

Under the RKVY-RAFTAAR framework, AFBIC typically runs structured Pre-Seed Stage (idea/validation) and Seed Stage (scale-up) cohorts, with grant-in-aid funding to selected startups, alongside mentoring, technical validation, and access to IIT Kharagpur's labs and pilot facilities. The centre also conducts orientation programmes, agripreneurship bootcamps, and industry linkage activities.

Ecosystem Role

For agri-food founders in eastern India and beyond, AFBIC offers a combination of central-government grant funding and access to one of India's leading technical institutes. It is positioned as a credible early-stage partner for science- and technology-driven agri-food ventures looking for non-dilutive capital and institutional support.