DERBI Foundation

DERBI is the Dayananda Sagar Entrepreneurship Research and Business Incubation Foundation, hosted by Dayananda Sagar University at Kudlu Gate in Bangalore, and set up with founding support from DST-NSTEDB.

The reason to look at it is the Prayas Shala Lab. Most incubators list "lab access" and leave it there; DERBI publishes an instrument-by-instrument inventory with model numbers, and the contents point squarely at medical devices. Alongside the expected spectroscopy — confocal RAMAN, FTIR, UV/VIS — it holds a Fluke ProSim 3 vital-sign simulator for ECG, pacemaker and arrhythmia testing, and an ESA609 electrical safety analyser.

That second pair matters more than it looks. Electrical safety testing is a mandatory gate for any medical device, and it normally means booking an external test house at real cost and a wait of weeks. Having it on the bench during development, rather than at the end, is a structural advantage for a medtech hardware team.

The rest of the lab supports the same story: a full PCB and SMT line, Tektronix test gear, 3D printing and scanning, a small machine shop, and a dual-RTX5000 workstation with MATLAB and LabVIEW licences.

Best fit: medtech and health hardware, at the stage where a device has to be built and proven. Weaker fit: software-only healthcare, which would use little of what makes DERBI distinctive.

DERBI is unusually specific about how its programmes run, which makes planning easier than at most incubators.

PACE needs a full-time founder. Sixteen weeks, with at least one founder available full-time throughout. It is stated up front, and it is the requirement most applicants will need to plan around — building alongside a job will not work here.

The ladder is real. PACE feeds directly into GALLOP, so completing the 16-week programme is itself a route into two-year incubation rather than a separate application. GALLOP then runs a defined selection sequence: internal screening, then a pitch to an external committee.

The lab has a published rate card. DERBI lists its equipment with charge details and an online sample-submission form — the only incubator we profile that prices its facilities openly. If you need instrument time rather than a desk, you can cost it out in advance.

On funding: DERBI channels national schemes — NIDHI EiR, NIDHI PRAYAS, NIDHI SSS, MeitY TIDE 2.0 and SISFS — whose terms are set centrally and can be checked independently. Programme-level support is matched to the startup rather than fixed, so the fastest route to specifics is the Pitch To Us form.

Choosing the right programme

Work out where you are first — DERBI's programmes are a ladder, not a menu.

• No proof of concept yet, and you can go full-time for 16 weeks: PACE.
• Healthcare startup already building a proof of concept or MVP: GALLOP.
• Healthcare product ready to deploy or trial: EMERGE, but check whether an intake is running. Its published timeline stops in 2022.
• Biotech or digital health looking for bio-incubation space: BIONEST.
• You want money rather than a cohort: pick the funding scheme that matches your stage. NIDHI EiR is a monthly fellowship for someone leaving a job to build. NIDHI PRAYAS is a prototyping grant for a physical product. NIDHI SSS and the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme are seed support for startups already incubated.

If you complete PACE you get direct entry to GALLOP, so applying to PACE is also the simplest way into two-year incubation.

How applications work

There is one route in. The Pitch To Us form asks you to tick which programme and which funding scheme you want, describe the problem and how it is solved today, describe your innovation, pick your stage from ideation through scale-up, say what assistance you want from DERBI, and upload a pitch deck. DERBI publishes a sample deck on the same page — use it, because the form gives you no second chance to explain the deck. General questions go to info@derbifoundation.com.

GALLOP also takes startups through direct scouting, so an introduction from someone in DERBI's mentor or portfolio network is a real alternative to the form.

How selection works

GALLOP publishes its sequence: your application is screened by DERBI's internal team, then you pitch to an external committee, then you are onboarded.

NIDHI PRAYAS publishes the most detail, and the timings matter. Screening takes six to eight weeks from the close of online applications, only shortlisted applicants are invited to present to a monitoring committee, and only selected candidates are notified — no reply inside that window means you were not selected. DERBI states it will not explain a rejection.

What reviewers look for

For NIDHI PRAYAS, DERBI names the criteria beyond bare eligibility: how innovative the idea is, its potential for commercialisation and venture creation, and the team's capability and commitment. Preference goes to innovators who have already put some of the project cost in themselves or have a co-investment commitment, to those with a clear commercialisation road map, and to women and young innovators.

Read the PRAYAS exclusions before you write anything. The project has to be a physical product, so software-only builds are out. So are doctoral research projects, teaching academics, and any idea whose intellectual property would sit with an institution rather than with you.

For NIDHI EiR, be ready to show a formal business plan and an investment presentation, and be prepared to commit full-time — the fellowship requires you to register for DERBI's pre-incubation programme for its whole duration.

Across every programme, DERBI's focus is healthcare: point-of-care devices, hospital management, home care, medical equipment, telemedicine, digital health, sports, wellness and nutrition. A pitch that does not connect to a clinical or health problem is a poor fit, and a medtech hardware pitch that needs the lab is the strongest one.

DERBI Foundation is a healthcare-focused incubator in Bengaluru, run as the Dayananda Sagar Entrepreneurship Research and Business Incubation Foundation. It grew out of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre set up for Dayananda Sagar Institutions in 2009, and was created as a foundation in 2015 with financial and other support from NSTEDB, the Department of Science & Technology's entrepreneurship board. It sits on the DSU Innovation Campus at Kudlu Gate on Hosur Road.

How programmes work

DERBI runs a ladder rather than a menu, and it is worth reading in order. PACE is the entry point: a 16-week hands-on programme for founders who need to validate a problem, build a first proof of concept and get to a pitch. Completing PACE gives direct entry to GALLOP, so the 16 weeks are themselves a route into incubation rather than a separate application. GALLOP is the two-year incubation programme, for healthcare startups already working on a proof of concept or an MVP. EMERGE sits at the top of the ladder for later-stage healthcare startups with something ready to deploy or trial, though its published timeline has not moved since 2022, so treat it as between intakes and ask.

Alongside the ladder, DERBI runs a BIONEST bio-incubation track under BIRAC, and five named funding schemes: NIDHI EiR, NIDHI PRAYAS and NIDHI SSS from DST, MeitY TIDE 2.0, and the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme. On its Current Programs page DERBI lists BIONEST, the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme and DigiKey events as what is running now.

Everything goes through one form. The Pitch To Us page asks which programme you want, which funding scheme you want, your problem statement, your innovation, your stage, and a pitch deck upload. A sample deck is downloadable from the same page.

Who can apply

PACE is open to early-stage startups or individual founders with a clear problem statement, across India, with hybrid participation from Bengaluru encouraged. The constraint that will decide it for most people is stated up front: at least one founder must be available full-time for the whole 16 weeks. Building alongside a job will not work here. PACE takes medtech and healthtech, wellness and sports tech, sustainability and greentech, and space tech.

GALLOP is narrower — startups in healthcare and allied areas, working on proof of concept and MVP development.

The funding schemes each carry their own national eligibility rules, and DERBI publishes them. NIDHI EiR is for Indian citizens with a science or engineering qualification who are willing to go full-time, and the recipient must register for DERBI's pre-incubation programme for the whole period of support. NIDHI PRAYAS is for individual innovators aged 18 or over, teams of innovators, or existing incubatees of a PRAYAS centre whose company is under two years old with no significant revenue. PRAYAS has real exclusions worth reading before you start: the project must involve physical product development, so software-only and pure academic research projects are not eligible; doctoral students on long-term research projects and teaching academics are not supported; and ideas whose intellectual property would vest with an institution are out. MeitY TIDE 2.0 takes idea-to-proof-of-concept technology startups, working professionals, aspiring entrepreneurs and students.

Facilities

The reason to look at DERBI is the Prayas Shala lab, co-named with DigiKey. Most incubators say "lab access" and stop there. DERBI publishes an instrument-by-instrument list with model numbers, an equipment list with charge details, a components bank list and an online sample-submission form.

What is on the bench points squarely at medical devices. Alongside the spectroscopy you would expect — confocal laser RAMAN, FTIR and UV/VIS — it holds a Fluke ProSim 3 vital-sign simulator for ECG, pacemaker, arrhythmia, respiration, blood pressure and cardiac output testing, and an ESA609 electrical safety analyser. Electrical safety testing is a mandatory gate for a medical device and normally means booking an external test house, so having it on the bench during development rather than at the end is a real advantage for a hardware team.

The rest supports the same story: a PCB and SMT line with a prototype milling machine, pick-and-place and reflow oven, Tektronix oscilloscopes and test gear, NI CompactDAQ sensor rigs, a Stratasys uPrint SE 3D printer and an Artec Eva Lite scanner, a small machine shop with a benchtop lathe and laser cutter, and a DELL 5820 workstation with LabVIEW and MATLAB. DERBI's promoter director also describes a route to approved clinical trials through CDSIMER, the group's medical school, on top of pilot trials at Sagar hospitals.

Scale

DERBI's homepage counters report 185 startups supported, 1,400 startups reached, 32 startups invested in, 84 given grants or fellowships, 1,080 jobs created and 200 sector experts. The Director's Message repeats the 185, 84 and 32 figures. Other pages do not agree with each other: the PACE page's counter strip claims 220+ startups incubated and 120+ grants and fellowships, and the three pages give mentoring hours as 1,500+, 2,400+ and 14,175. All of these are self-reported and undated, and we have not verified any of them.

Who runs it

Sathyanarayana B V is CEO. The team page names Bhavani G as Incubation Manager, Dr. Santhiya Sasidharan as Innovation Lab Coordinator and Dr. Adithya Hande as Associate Manager for Clinical Research. The Governing Council is chaired by Mr. Vidyashankar M N and includes Rohan Prem Sagar as promoter director, Samir Kumar of Inventus Capital India, Anand Kumar of Bugworks, A Vijayarajan of InnAccel Technologies, Dr. Vishal Rao of HCG Cancer Centre, Dr. Nandakumar Jairam and T R Anand. DERBI also runs a Clinical Mentor Forum of practising doctors from HCG, Sagar Hospitals, NU Hospitals and others.

Locations

The main address is the DSU Innovation Campus at Kudlu Gate, Hongasandra Village, Hosur Road, Bangalore 560068. The host campus is at Shavige Malleshwara Hills, Kumaraswamy Layout, Bengaluru 560078, and there is an off-Bangalore site at CDSIMER in Devarakaggalahalli, Harohalli, on Kanakapura Road in Ramanagara district. DERBI lists one careers opening, for a Lab Manager in Bangalore, though that posting is dated 2024. Its events page is currently empty.