Cisco

Know what you are applying to

• Cisco for Startups is the current name of the programme once called Cisco LaunchPad. If the form says LaunchPad, you are in the right place.
• There is one standing application. No batch dates or deadline are published, so you can apply at any time.
• Cisco's pages do not state a fee or an equity term. Ask about both in your first conversation with the team.
• Mentors and ecosystem partners register through the same registration hub, so make sure you open the startup form.

How the application works

• Fill in the online registration form. The team says it will reply within two to three working days.
• Have these ready: founding month and year, city and country, website, LinkedIn page, a link to your pitch deck, and a demo video if you have one.
• Be ready to describe your customer traction, name your top customers, pick a revenue band, and state your current funding and stage.
• Pick your industry from the list on the form. It covers many sectors, not only networking.
• Explain why you want to join. The form asks this directly.

What reviewers appear to look for

Cisco publishes no scoring criteria, so treat this as a reading of the form rather than a rule.

• Relevance to Cisco technology. The form has its own question on how your startup relates to Cisco technologies. Say which Cisco products your solution runs on, integrates with or complements.
• Real customers. The form asks for traction and your top customers. Give names and results you can back up.
• A clear reason to join. The roadmap ends in a customer pilot and partner onboarding, so say what you would build or pilot with Cisco.

Other ways in

• The India Technopreneurship Series runs workshops that end in a pitch day. If an edition is running in your state, it is another route to the Cisco startup ecosystem.
• If your state has not had an edition, Cisco invites you to get in touch about running one.

Cisco for Startups is the startup programme of Cisco Systems, run through its India arm. It was previously called Cisco LaunchPad, and the application form still uses that name in one place. The programme gives startups mentors, access to Cisco technology and labs, a coworking space inside the Cisco campus, introductions to investors, and a path to selling alongside Cisco as a certified partner.

How the programme works

Cisco for Startups is a standing programme rather than a dated cohort call. Its pages publish no batch calendar, no application deadline and no cohort size. A startup applies through an online registration form and the team says it will get in touch within two to three working days. The pages do not say whether the programme is free or whether Cisco takes equity, so this page states neither.

Inside the programme Cisco describes a three-stage partner roadmap. At the Explorer stage a startup looks for overlap between its product and the Cisco technology stack, with scoping, training and a deep dive into Cisco products. At the Builder stage it builds, integrates and validates a solution on that stack. At the Scaler stage it scales the solution and looks for business across different verticals and geographies. Along the way the roadmap lists a customer pilot, joint go-to-market, and registering the solution and onboarding as a Cisco partner.

What startups get

Cisco lists these benefits on its programme pages:

• Mentoring from internal Cisco mentors and external industry experts.
• Access to Cisco technology, including IoT, edge intelligence and Meraki wireless products.
• Lab support, so a startup can try out ideas together with customers and partners.
• A coworking space within the Cisco campus.
• Investor connects with angel investors and venture capital firms.
• A route to becoming a certified Cisco partner, with wider access to Cisco's sales teams and chances for proof-of-concept work and demos.
• Visibility across the Cisco ecosystem.

Cisco's pages do not state a city for the coworking space. They say only that it sits within the Cisco campus.

Who can apply

Cisco publishes no eligibility rule for the programme. The registration form asks which industry the startup works in, and offers a long list: agritech, aviation, maritime and defence, banking and financial services, consumer tech, cybersecurity, edtech, energy and utilities, enterprise tech, gaming, healthcare, HR tech, industrial and manufacturing, media and entertainment, mobility, retail, supply chain and logistics, security and surveillance, space tech, telecom, and others. It also asks how the startup's work relates to Cisco technologies, which suggests the team looks first at startups whose products can be built on or work with Cisco's stack.

The form asks for the month and year of founding, the city and country, a website and LinkedIn page, a pitch deck link and an optional demo video. It also asks about customer traction and top customers, a revenue band that starts at pre-revenue, current funding, the startup's stage, and why the startup wants to join. The programme is run from India. Its pages do not say whether startups based outside India can apply.

STEP, the startup platform

Cisco STEP is an online platform for startups that Cisco has accelerated. It brings startups, mentors, investors and ecosystem partners together in one place and keeps startups up to date on Cisco for Startups activity. It is a member platform, not a separate funding scheme or intake.

India Technopreneurship Series

The India Technopreneurship Series is a set of workshops that mix business and technology and end in a pitch day in front of corporate leaders. It gives emerging startups and innovators a chance to enter the Cisco startup ecosystem. Cisco names editions in Kerala, Assam and Maharashtra, and invites people in other cities or states to get in touch about running the series there. No current dates or application link are published.

Scale and track record

The programme's homepage reports that it has run for seven years, accelerated 70 startups, brought in more than 100 mentors and made more than 100 investor connects. It also reports more than 30 pilots, more than 30 startups onboarded as Cisco solution partners and more than 3,000 jobs created. It gives a figure for follow-on funding raised by accelerated startups too, which this page does not repeat. These are Cisco's own numbers, they carry no date, and the site footer reads 2024, so they may be up to two years old.

The site profiles startups from the programme, including Smart Ship Hub, a maritime technology company, and ZestIoT, which helps airlines and airports improve on-time flight performance. The chief executive of QNu Labs says on the site that Cisco for Startups accelerated the company's journey by at least a year.

Events and partners

The programme's news and events page shows Cisco working with outside bodies. Cisco for Startups worked with CII on the Techno Conclave Awards. It also worked with HSBC and Startup India on an event for more than 40 early-stage and growth-stage startups from the National Startup Award cohort of 2022.