ARTPARK, IISc Bengaluru

Choose the right programme

• You have lab-validated technology and no company yet: Technology Innovators in Residence. You work on campus for up to six months at zero equity, and the intellectual property you create stays with ARTPARK and is licensed to your spin-out.
• You have an incorporated company with a working prototype: Venture Incubation Programme. ARTPARK invests for equity and you keep your IP.
• You have only an idea, or the product is mainly software: neither programme fits. ARTPARK says pure SaaS and consumer apps are out.

Check these before you spend time on an application

• Technology readiness level: 3 or above for the residency, 4 or above for the venture programme.
• Company form: an Indian-registered private limited company for the venture programme, with DPIIT recognition preferred.
• Team: up to three founders for the residency, two to four for the venture programme.
• Cap table: a messy or encumbered cap table is on ARTPARK's list of reasons the venture programme is not a fit.
• Employer consent: if you are affiliated with another organisation, you need its no-objection certificate to commit full time to the residency.
• Location: both programmes expect you to work mainly from ARTPARK at IISc in Bengaluru.

How applications work

• Apply only through the online form on ARTPARK's application portal. Email, social media and third-party submissions are not accepted.
• For the venture programme, have your pitch deck, a demo, your cap table and your team profiles ready.
• Both 2026 windows have closed and no next date is out. Watch the ARTPARK startups page for the next call, and ignore the open badges still showing on the portal home page.
• Questions can go to startup@artpark.in.

How selection works

The programme pages do not describe a selection process beyond the form. The eligibility lists are specific, so read the "not a fit" conditions closely: they are where applications are most likely to fall out.

What reviewers look for

• Step-change innovation in AI, robotics, novel materials, sensors, mechatronics, manufacturing or cyber-physical systems, not incremental improvement.
• Real hardware or deep-technology content, not a software wrapper.
• For the venture programme, a working prototype and early signs of product-market fit.
• Willingness to commit full time and to be based at ARTPARK.

ARTPARK, short for AI & Robotics Technology Park, is a not-for-profit company hosted at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru. It backs deep-tech startups in AI, robotics, novel materials, sensors and cyber-physical systems through a technology business incubator. Its registered name is I-Hub for Robotics and Autonomous Systems Innovation Foundation, and its office is in the Entrepreneurship Building on the IISc campus.

What ARTPARK is

ARTPARK describes itself as a not-for-profit Section 8 company. It is a separate legal entity from IISc, which hosts it, and the Director of IISc chairs its governing board. A 2020 Department of Science and Technology (DST) announcement described it as set up by IISc with support from AI Foundry in a public-private model. ARTPARK's own pages say it is seed-funded by DST. The same announcement quotes ARTPARK's leadership as saying it grew out of the Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber Physical Systems at IISc; that is DST's account, not something ARTPARK repeats on its current site.

ARTPARK is not an academic body, and it is not a general-purpose incubator. Its startup work is narrow: AI, robotics, novel materials, sensors, mechatronics, manufacturing and cyber-physical systems, with a hardware or deep-technology core. It says plainly that incremental innovation and pure software products, such as SaaS and consumer apps, are not a fit.

How the startup programmes work

ARTPARK runs two startup programmes under its incubator, and they are built to follow one another. Technology Innovators in Residence (TIR) is for researchers and technologists who do not yet have a company. It is a residency of up to six months at ARTPARK in which a team matures lab-validated technology before spinning out. Venture Incubation Programme (VIP) is for companies that already exist and have a working prototype. ARTPARK invests directly in those companies and gives them infrastructure at IISc, a network and a path to follow-on capital. High-performing TIR teams can move into VIP.

Both programmes were open in 2026 and both are now closed. ARTPARK's own site and its application portal give slightly different closing dates: for TIR, late May on both, with different days; for VIP, mid-June on one site and later in June on the other. No date for the next cohort has been announced, and ARTPARK's pages say to watch for it. The application portal is marked as a beta. Its home page still shows both programmes with an open badge and apply buttons, while the programme pages themselves say applications are closed, so trust the programme pages.

Applications go through the online form on the ARTPARK application portal only. ARTPARK states that it does not accept applications by email, on social media or through third parties. One page on the main site calls the investment programme the Startup Incubation Program, and the portal address uses the same short form, but everywhere else it is the Venture Incubation Programme.

Who can apply

For TIR you need technology at technology readiness level 3 or above, meaning it has been validated in a lab. A team can have up to three founding members. The programme expects a full-time commitment on campus, and if you are employed or affiliated elsewhere you need a no-objection certificate from your current organisation. If your technology is below that level, or it is mainly software, ARTPARK says TIR is not for you.

For VIP you need an Indian-registered private limited company, with DPIIT recognition preferred, a prototype at technology readiness level 4 or above, a founding team of two to four people and early signs of product-market fit. You should be willing to work mainly from ARTPARK and IISc in Bengaluru. ARTPARK lists what rules a company out: not yet incorporated (apply to TIR instead), a prototype below that level, a priced Series A round or later, an encumbered cap table, or an innovation that is incremental or mostly software.

What ARTPARK asks in return

TIR is funded at zero equity. Funding is milestone-linked, and an initial grant covers the first six months. Intellectual property created during the residency is owned by ARTPARK and licensed exclusively to the spin-out. That is unusual for an incubator, so read it before you apply.

VIP takes equity. ARTPARK invests through CCPS (compulsorily convertible preference shares) or priced equity on standard terms. The portal states an indicative dilution that scales with the size of the investment, with a further share for workspace and infrastructure access. In VIP the startup keeps all of its intellectual property, and ARTPARK takes standard investor rights without any transfer or licence of IP.

Other work at ARTPARK

Much of ARTPARK is research and public-interest technology rather than startup support, and none of the following is presented as a founder intake. CAMRAS is an industry accelerator set up at ARTPARK by the Ministry of Heavy Industries for robotics and autonomous systems, and it started with eight projects. The Centre of Excellence for Wired and Wireless Technologies, seed-funded by the Government of Karnataka, runs a 5G test lab. Project Vaani is an open speech dataset, released through Bhashini and Hugging Face, covering 165 districts across India. ARTPARK also lists in-house work on humanoids, multi-robot systems, navigation, physical AI, Industry 5.0 for manufacturers and health data.

ARTPARK's Academy page lists skilling programmes: AI-MPOWER, a faculty training programme that IISc's Department of Computational and Data Science offers with ARTPARK's support, ARCNet, a student-led skilling centre, and top-up fellowships for final-year student projects in robotics and AI. The fellowship details on that page are from the 2023-24 round, and the page shows no current intake for any of them, so check before planning around them.

Scale

ARTPARK says it has built and invested in 34 companies since 2020. This is its own figure and it is not dated. The ARTPARK home page names Yaanendriya and Qosmic among companies built at ARTPARK, each described there as having raised a funding round.

Who runs it

Prof Bharadwaj Amrutur is Executive Director and Chief Technologist, and Raghu Dharmaraju is Chief Executive Officer. Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director of IISc, chairs the hub governing board. ARTPARK states that it is recognised by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research as an in-house R&D unit, that it is registered to undertake corporate social responsibility activities, and that it holds Section 80G approval and registration as a charitable company under tax law.

Contact and location

ARTPARK is at the Entrepreneurship Building, Ground Floor, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560012. Startup applicants can write to its startup inbox, and the main site also lists general office and connect inboxes.