AIC SURATi iLAB Foundation

Check you fit before you apply

• Be registered. The form requires your company's registration (ROC) date, so apply once the startup is incorporated.
• Be ready to say what you need. The form asks how many seats you want, what stage your product and market are at, your monthly revenue, your challenges and what you expect from the centre.
• DPIIT recognition is optional for a seat but is required for the municipal procurement route, together with an Udyam registration.
• Surat is the focus. The centre says it serves entrepreneurs of Surat and the neighbouring region. It states no residency rule, so ask before applying from elsewhere.

How applications work

• Fill the Application for Startups form on the centre's site. No intake dates are stated, so it looks to be rolling.
• You pay one month of seat rent in advance and a security deposit equal to one month of rent when admitted.
• Women-led and specially abled (Divyang) startups get a 25% discount on co-working seats.
• Admission follows the centre's rules, and its authorities' decision is final.
• Questions: write to hello@suratiilab.org or call on working days between 11 AM and 6 PM.

If you want to sell to Surat Municipal Corporation

• Read the Startup Procurement and Promotion Policy linked from the centre's home page.
• Check that you hold both DPIIT recognition and an Udyam registration as a micro or small enterprise.
• Watch for problem statements on the corporation's portal, the centre's portal or the CiX portal, or send an unsolicited proposal there. You can also pitch the relevant corporation department directly.
• The policy's draft evaluation framework scores proposals on relevance, advantages, return on investment and the team's capability.

What to check with the centre

• Whether the Atal Incubation Centre support is current. No funding period is published.
• Whether seats are available now. The home page still says the centre "is building" its incubation space, although its tariff page lists live rates.

AIC SURATi iLAB Foundation is the startup incubation and innovation centre of the city of Surat, in Gujarat. It is run from Rayka Circle in Udhna by Surat Smart City Development Limited and Surat Municipal Corporation, which set it up as part of the Smart Cities Mission. The name stands for SURAT iDEAS & iNNOVATIONS LAB, and the centre describes itself as an Innovation, Incubation, Startup and Trade Facilitation Center.

The Atal Innovation Mission lists it in its directory of selected Atal Incubation Centres. That directory describes it as a Section 8 company, incorporated on 6 April 2018 and wholly owned by Surat Smart City Development Limited. Neither the directory nor the centre's own pages give a funding period, so a founder cannot tell from them whether the Atal support is current.

What it offers startups

The core offer is a seat in a shared co-working area. The centre lists 120 co-working seats, 2 cabins with 8 seats in total, 3 meeting rooms, a teaching lab with 26 seats, a workshop with 56 seats and an auditorium with 150 seats. Co-working seats are rented per seat per month, with one month paid in advance and a security deposit equal to one month of rent. The centre also states a 25% discount on co-working seats for startups led by women and by specially abled (Divyang) founders. The meeting rooms, teaching lab, workshop and auditorium can be booked for set blocks of hours, as listed on its tariff page.

The centre says it wants to give entrepreneurs in Surat and the neighbouring region a platform to turn ideas into businesses. Its stated aims are to connect founders to peers, mentors and long-term advisors, to build partnerships to launch or scale products, to connect them with venture funds and angel investors, and to train early-stage startups and their teams. It has a page of mentors, drawn from local business associations, textile and diamond trade bodies, universities and angel groups, and a form for people who want to become mentors or partners.

Who can apply

Applications to the co-working incubation go through an online form. The form asks for the founder's age, qualification and work experience, and for the startup's address, registration (ROC) date, product, market, number of employees, monthly revenue, the challenges it faces and the number of seats it needs. The registration date is a required field, so the startup should already be registered. A DPIIT (Startup India) registration number is asked for but not required. The centre states no residency rule and no sector rule, although its focus is Surat. It also states no dates for intake, so applications look to be open all year. Startups agree that the application is subject to evaluation by the centre, and its authorities' decision is final.

Selling to the city

The centre's top bar links to the Surat Municipal Corporation Startup Procurement and Promotion Policy. Under it, startups can pitch solutions to the corporation's departments, either in response to a published problem statement or as an unsolicited proposal. The Managing Director of the centre chairs the committee that screens proposals, and the Municipal Commissioner chairs the council that approves pilots. A startup must hold DPIIT recognition and an Udyam registration as a micro or small enterprise. A successful pilot can lead to a bid process in which the startup gets a right of first refusal, and intellectual property created in a project stays with the startup. The policy also allows registered startups and ecosystem bodies to use the corporation's smaller halls, including the auditorium at the centre, for startup events with the rental charge waived, though other charges still apply.

Sectors

The centre ties its work to Surat's textile and diamond industries and to what it calls an industrial 4.0 bend. The Atal directory lists its sectors as diamond, textile, chemicals, smart city and e-governance, IT and IoT, and agriculture.

Events, partners and careers

The events page lists recent meetings with Surat startups, a startup awareness programme and a meeting with universities and colleges, and older hackathons and workshops held at the centre between 2017 and 2019. Its partner list includes SVNIT, Auro University, the South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries, YES Bank and Pricewaterhouse Cooper. The partner page is a plain list of names and does not describe what each partner does. Its careers page currently shows no job openings.

Location and contact

The centre is at Rayka Circle, Udhna, Surat, Gujarat 394210. It answers calls on working days from 11 AM to 6 PM, and general questions can go to its public enquiry inbox.