Zone Startups India

Choosing the right programme

• ZSI Nurtery is the one-year incubation for early and growth stage founders who want workspace, mentoring, investor and industry connects, and help entering international markets.
• Xcelerator: X-Border Fintech Solutions was the themed accelerator for ventures building regulatory, supervisory and cyber and data security technology for banking and financial services. Its 2023 cohort is closed.
• Its site also lists empoWer, the Next BIG Idea and other offerings. Their pages do not say whether they are open.

How applications work

• The incubation programme page carries an Apply button. Its pages do not publish an eligibility checklist or a selection process, so have your company details, stage and traction ready to describe.
• General questions can go to the foundation's administrative inbox, brtsif.admin@zonestartups.com.

Check the terms before you apply

• Whether the incubator charges a fee or takes equity is not stated on its pages. Ask before you sign anything.
• No intake date, cohort size or funding figure appears on the programme pages. Treat all three as unstated.
• If you are in regulatory or supervisory technology for financial services, note that the foundation holds a Limited Use Authorization under the regulator's fintech incentive scheme. That is a standing recognition, not a live application route.

Zone Startups India is the public name of the BIL Ryerson Technology Startup Incubator Foundation, a not-for-profit incubator that works from its office in the BSE building on Dalal Street in Mumbai. It helps early and growth stage founders with workspace, mentoring, investor and industry connects, and entry into international markets. Its own pages describe the foundation as a joint venture and name BSE Institute Ltd. as one of the three partners behind it.

How its programmes work

The foundation's standing programme is ZSI Nurtery, a one-year startup incubation programme. Through it, founders get infrastructure, mentoring, investor connects, a peer network, industry connects, access to funds and international market access. Its pages say incubatees also reach a network of venture capital and venture debt partners, and can apply for its NIDHI seed fund if they are eligible.

Alongside the incubator it runs themed accelerators. The one with its own page is Xcelerator: X-Border Fintech Solutions, a thematic accelerator for global regtech, suptech and cyber and data security ventures in the banking, financial services and insurance sector. Regtech and suptech here mean regulatory and supervisory technology. The programme ran under the aegis of the International Financial Services Centres Authority, the unified regulator established by the Government of India. The 2023 cohort is closed.

Its pages state that Zone Startups India holds a Limited Use Authorization under the International Financial Services Centres Authority's Fintech Incentive Scheme.

The programme menu on its site lists a wider set of offerings, among them empoWer and the Next BIG Idea. A government blog has described empoWer as a tech accelerator for women founders, and Next BIG Idea as an Indo-Canadian bilateral innovation and entrepreneurship programme. Whether those are open is not stated.

Who can apply

ZSI Nurtery is for early and growth stage founders, and the site says its support runs across all lifecycle stages. Its pages do not publish a longer eligibility list for the incubator, and they do not set out the programme's terms. The fintech accelerator was built for ventures already working on regulatory, supervisory and cyber and data security products for banking and financial services.

Facilities

Incubatees work from an open plug-and-play seated office at the BSE building in Mumbai. That office is the facility its pages describe. No lab, workshop or prototyping space is listed.

Scale

The foundation reports that it has supported more than 600 startups over the last nine years. A counter on its home page gives over 550. It reports 2,000-plus jobs created, a mentor network of more than 50 people, and 11 corporate partners. The two counters for startups incubated do not agree: the home page shows 127, and the ZSI Nurtery page shows 145. A separate counter reports 414 startups accelerated.

These are the foundation's own published figures and they are not audited. They are also undated on the pages themselves. Read them as orders of magnitude rather than as a precise record.

Who runs it

The incubator is run by the BIL Ryerson Technology Startup Incubator Foundation, a not-for-profit body that operates under the name Zone Startups India. Its pages describe the foundation as a joint venture and name BSE Institute Ltd. as one of three partners. A 2016 interview with a BSE executive described BSE Institute Ltd. as a wholly owned subsidiary of BSE that set up Zone Startups India with Ryerson University, and the foundation's name still carries both.

The government's science and technology portal lists it as a technology incubator with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, as its funding agency. That portal shows 2015 as its year of establishment. Its own site dates its start to 2013, and a 2016 news report says it started in February 2014. A government blog has also reported an agreement to explore a fintech hub in GIFT City.

Locations

It works from the 18th floor of PJ Tower on Dalal Street in Mumbai, in the BSE building its pages refer to.