CII Centre of Excellence

Pick the route that fits your stage

• Growth stage, with customers and a validated product: the Corporate Accelerator Program (sixteen weeks, piloting inside a corporate) or the Corporate Innovation Program (thirty-two weeks, co-creating with a business unit).
• Operating for at least two years and want a recognised credential and network: the paid Startup Affiliation Programme.
• Earlier than growth stage: watch for the partner-specific calls. Some have taken early-stage ventures with a proof of concept or a deployable solution, but each sets its own bar.

How applications work

• The standing programme pages do not carry their own apply button. The link to the call for applications sits on the Corporate Innovation page and leads to CII CIES's startup affiliation portal.
• Partner-specific calls have their own application page and a last date. Where a past call stated its fees, it was free to apply to and to join.
• The standing programme pages do not state dates, a fee or equity terms. Email info@ciicies.in to confirm whether an intake is open before you prepare.
• Affiliation is applied for online with company details, revenue documents and team information. An expert panel reviews it and the stated timeline is 30 days.

How selection works

• For the manufacturing call, entries were screened for relevance and then judged on innovation, scalability and fit with the problem statements.
• The pilot-led calls asked the same two things: does your solution address the stated problem, and can you run a pilot soon.

What reviewers look for

• Proven product-market fit and paying or existing clients, shown with measurable traction.
• A differentiated product and a committed founding team, with at least one co-founder full time.
• Regulatory compliance and the permits your business needs.
• Willingness to adapt your product to a corporate's requirements. This is stated outright for the Corporate Innovation Program.
• A solution aimed at the corporate's defined problem rather than a generic pitch.

CII Centre of Excellence for Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Startups (CII CIES) is a centre of the Confederation of Indian Industry, based at T-Hub 2.0 in Madhapur, Hyderabad. It connects growth-stage startups with large companies through corporate pilot and market-access programmes, and runs a paid affiliation scheme that certifies startups. Its programmes are built around what a corporate partner wants to solve, and the programme pages do not publish a fixed intake calendar.

How programmes work

CII CIES runs two standing programmes and a series of partner-specific calls. The Corporate Accelerator Program is a sixteen-week market access programme in which growth-stage startups demonstrate or pilot their innovations inside large corporates. The Corporate Innovation Program runs for thirty-two weeks and is aimed at startups that want to co-create solutions with a corporate business unit and solve specific domain problems alongside it. Neither programme page states dates, a fee or any equity terms, so confirm those with the team before you plan around them.

Alongside these, CII CIES publishes one-off calls built around a single corporate partner's problem statements. Recent ones include the FutureSites Innovation Program (retail technology, with an oil and gas company's retail business unit), the NextGen Procurement Programme (a procurement platform for MSMEs buying metal cutting tools), the SmartMFG Innovation Programme (manufacturing safety, efficiency, sustainability and quality) and the ICONN NINJA India Programme (Indian startups matched with Japanese corporates, run with JICA and Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support). All four have closed, and ICONN NINJA has run for at least two cohorts. Together they show the kinds of corporate problems CII CIES takes on.

Who can apply

The two standing programmes are for growth-stage startups with proven product-market fit and existing clients. CII CIES looks for a high level of innovation and differentiation, a product or service validated in the market with measurable traction, a committed and skilled founding team with at least one co-founder working full time, and compliance with all regulatory requirements, including the permits the business needs. For the Corporate Innovation Program, startups must also be ready to work closely with corporate business units and adapt their solutions to the corporate's requirements.

The one-off calls set their own bar. SmartMFG welcomed early or growth-stage ventures with deployable, scalable solutions for heavy manufacturing. ICONN NINJA wanted Indian startups with at least a proof of concept or early market validation. FutureSites wanted scale-ready startups with a tested product or early deployments, ready to run a pilot within six to twelve months, and said international startups could apply if they could operate or deploy pilots in India. Sectors vary with each corporate challenge; the affiliation scheme itself is open to all sectors.

Startup Affiliation Programme

The Startup Affiliation Programme recognises Indian startups and serves as the gateway to the CII CIES network. Affiliated startups receive an official affiliation certificate and a digital badge, valid for 24 months, along with a public profile on the CII CIES platform, networking, masterclasses and policy consultations. It is a paid annual affiliation, with the fee set by the startup's annual revenue, and only startups recommended by the expert panel pay.

To qualify, a startup needs to have been operating for at least two years, be registered and incorporated in India, have a dedicated founding team able to execute and scale, and have a commercially available product or service with customer adoption or market validation. The review is stated to take 30 days from the date of application.

CII CIES describes this scheme in two ways. Its home page groups it with the market-access programmes that let startups pilot inside corporates. The affiliation page itself describes a certificate and network, and says access to programmes is subject to each programme's own eligibility. Treat affiliation as a credential and a way into the network, not as a promise of a corporate pilot.

Locations

CII CIES operates from the 6th Floor, T-Hub 2.0, 20, Inorbit Mall Road, Vittal Rao Nagar, Madhapur, Hyderabad, Telangana 500081. Its own site does not describe workspace or desks for startups. A March 2023 news report on the opening of the centre said it had a 200-seat facility with workspaces, ideation labs and mentoring rooms, set up with the Government of Telangana and Pratiksha Trust. We have not been able to confirm from CII CIES's own pages that this space is open to startups, so ask before assuming it.

Who runs it

The centre describes itself as a Centre of Excellence of the Confederation of Indian Industry, set up to bridge the gap between corporates and startups. The same news report said CII launched the CIES initiative in 2020 and opened the Hyderabad centre in 2023, and that agreements for corporate accelerator programmes were exchanged at the launch with Apollo Hospitals, Elico, Skoda Auto and Vedanta. Its own site gives no founding year.

Other activities

CII CIES also organises international delegations. Its site lists past trips to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Australia and Singapore, including a UAE delegation to Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi from 13 to 16 October 2025. It also runs capacity-building work aimed at family offices, senior corporate executives, government officials and academia. Neither of these has a stated way for a startup to apply, so we have not listed them as programmes. For any question, the general inbox is info@ciicies.in.