CODISSIA Defence Innovation and Atal Incubation Centre (CDIIC)

Pick the right route

• A start-up that wants a place and mentoring: use the incubatee application form.
• An inventor or MSME with a prototype idea, a patent or an IPR filing: use the innovator application form.
• A manufacturer that wants to supply the armed forces: ask about the DGQA Facilitation Cell, which sits on Fridays and Saturdays by prior registration.

How applications work

• Download the form from the Incubation or Innovation page, fill it, sign it, scan it and email it to info@cdiic.in.
• No intake dates or deadlines are published, so write to ask whether a decision window is open.
• The site's contact page returned an error when checked. The forms carry the phone numbers +91 422 2221582 and +91 422 2222409.

What the forms ask for

• Start-up form: legal status, year of establishment, team size, promoters, product title, domain and technologies, the problem, target customer, novelty, patent status, team strength and experience, traction or funding so far, any earlier incubation, and a video link and website.
• Innovator form: IPR status (applied, published or granted), title of the innovation, a video link, a proposal file, whether it is for defence, commercial or dual use, and details of each inventor.
• Have these ready before you write. The innovator form also asks for the inventor's ID number, so know what you are sending and keep the email address to info@cdiic.in only.

Before you apply

• Check fit with the focus areas: defence technologies, robotics and automation, and automobile and intelligent transport systems. Other technology start-ups are among its named incubatees.
• Do not assume terms: the pages do not state fees, equity or the size of any seed support, so ask before you commit.

CODISSIA Defence Innovation and Atal Incubation Centre, known as CDIIC, is an incubator in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, for technology start-ups and innovators, with a focus on defence. It is a not-for-profit Section 8 company set up on 10 January 2019 by CODISSIA, the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association. It describes itself as supported by the Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Defence. It is a separate company from CODISSIA, which is its founding association and parent.

Who it is for

CDIIC backs technology-based start-ups and innovators. Its own pages name three focus areas: defence technologies, robotics and automation, and automobile and intelligent transport systems. The Atal Innovation Mission's list of Atal Incubation Centres describes its sector as tech-based start-ups with defence and commercial applications. The incubatees it names are not all defence companies. They include drone, aerospace, underwater robotics, AR and VR, energy storage, software and textile start-ups.

Nothing on its pages limits applications to CODISSIA members or to students of a host college. The application form asks whether you are a CODISSIA or CDIIC member, but it does not say membership is required. It also accepts applicants who are yet to register a company, with a legal-status list that runs from yet to register through proprietorship, partnership, private limited, LLP and one person company.

How the programme works

CDIIC lays out its platform in four stages. Pre-incubation covers selecting the right potential ideas through ideation, makeathons, hackathons and workshops, then mentoring, proof of concept and company registration. Incubation covers mentoring, a business plan, technology development, team development, a market-viable prototype, IPR and a seed fund. Acceleration covers business strategy, finance support, organisational growth, product positioning and promotion, and business networking. The last step is graduation from the incubation centre.

Support listed for physical and virtual incubators includes a startup kit, a furnished eco-friendly co-working space, HR help, mentoring, funding, and defence, investor and industry connects. Trainings listed include technical seminars, a founders chair motivational session, IPR, workshops, fund and business pitch practice, team building, conferences, business plan, marketing and sales, and weekly startup meetings. Its programmes page names CDIIC Startup Challenge, CDIIC Startup Meetings and CDIIC Pitch fest among its events, without dates.

Innovators have a separate application. CDIIC says it will provide infrastructure, facilities for re-engineering, trial and testing, a source of funding for prototype development, and an ecosystem for turning technical know-how into a business. That form asks for IPR status and whether the application is for defence, commercial, dual or other use.

Defence indigenisation

CDIIC runs a DGQA Facilitation Cell at CODISSIA's city office, created on 22 May 2020 and working from 1 June 2020. It helps manufacturers in and around Coimbatore register with the Directorate General Quality Assurance so they can supply to the armed forces, ordnance factories and defence public sector undertakings. The cell works on Fridays and Saturdays, and meetings are by prior registration through info@cdiic.in. The steps it publishes run from choosing a product to indigenise, through an on-site assessment and DGQA vendor registration, to a project proposal and prototype validation before supply.

Facilities and location

The incubation facility is at the CODISSIA Industrial Park site at Kallapalayam village in Sulur taluk, about 25 kms from Coimbatore. CODISSIA provided 1 acre of land, with about 12500 sq ft of infrastructure built on it. CDIIC's own tender notices list works at this Kallapalayam site. The mailing address on its application forms is CODISSIA, G.D. Naidu Towers, PB No 3827, Huzur Road, Coimbatore 641018.

Partners and credentials

CDIIC's team page lists the Army, Navy, Air Force and defence public sector undertakings as defence partners. It lists PSG College of Technology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College as academic partners, and PSG-STEP as an incubation centre partner. CDIIC states that it is one of the Atal Incubation Centres under the Atal Innovation Mission, and the Mission's own list of selected centres carries it. Neither source gives the period of the Mission's support, so whether it is current cannot be told from them.

Who runs it

CDIIC is a company with seven directors, listed on its team page. Its founding association, CODISSIA, is an association of micro, small and medium enterprises in Coimbatore.

How to apply

There is no online form. You download the incubatee or innovator application form from the CDIIC site, fill and sign it, scan it and email it to info@cdiic.in. No intake dates are published. The contact page on the site returned an error when checked, so the email address and the phone numbers on the forms are the usable routes.