IIIT-Hyderbad

Choosing a programme

• A deep-tech startup with a basic MVP and some customer validation: look at Avishkar.
• A women-led startup at an early stage: look at FLO Incubator@CIE IIITH.
• An early-stage startup working with XR technologies: look at the XR Startup Program Accelerator.

How applications work

• Shortlisted Avishkar applicants are invited to a pitching session at IIIT-H and pitch to a panel.
• Selected applicants are told within about a week of the pitch.
• For questions about Avishkar, email Incubation@iiit.ac.in.

What reviewers look for

• Development stage and tech validation, as well as a pitch deck, shape the seed funding offered by Avishkar.
• Startups should be built on emerging technologies and have a full-time founder.

The Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) is the startup incubation centre of IIIT Hyderabad. It was set up in 2008 and supports early-stage startups, mainly in deep tech, through its incubators and accelerators. The programmes are run from IIIT-H in Hyderabad.

How the programmes work

Avishkar is a six-month accelerator for deep-tech startups working in areas such as AI, AR/VR, computer vision, machine learning, robotics and NLP. A new cohort is run twice a year. Selected startups get access to IIIT-H professors, mentoring from the CIE team, prototyping and research labs, cloud credits and a seed fund. The amount of seed funding depends on the development stage of the startup and its pitch, along with tech validation.

FLO Incubator@CIE IIITH supports women entrepreneurs and women-led startups. It is run with the FICCI FLO Hyderabad Chapter. Each cohort runs for one month and combines insights, biz talks, bootcamps and one-to-one mentoring with expert mentors, followed by a micro accelerator.

The XR Startup Program Accelerator nurtures 10 early-stage startups working with extended reality technologies, including augmented, virtual and mixed reality. It runs for six months and is part of the XR Startup Program, a collaboration between Meta and MeitY Startup Hub.

CIE also ran the HDFC Bank Parivartan AI for Social Good Challenge, a grant challenge for tech-driven research startups with a social impact use case. Its application window closed in early 2025.

Who can apply

Avishkar is open to startups registered in India, with a full-time founder, ideally a basic MVP with customer validation, and a focus on emerging technologies. The FLO programme is for women entrepreneurs and women-led startups. The XR accelerator is for early-stage startups working with XR technologies.

Beyond the accelerators

Alongside its accelerators, CIE runs a pre-incubation programme for entrepreneurs who are creating new startups, incubation for early-stage startups, and mentoring programmes to improve strategy and business development. It also holds investor pitch days and talks and workshops from experts and successful entrepreneurs, along with entrepreneurship courses and workshops for students.

Facilities

CIE offers access to prototyping labs and research labs, cloud credits for selected startups, and incubation space for its startups.

Scale

The site reports 10,000+ entrepreneurs engaged. Its pages give different counts for the number of startups housed, so this page does not give a single figure for that.

Who runs it

CIE was recognised as a Technology Business Incubator by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board under the Department of Science and Technology. Its work has been supported by DST, MeitY, BioNEST, BIRAC, NITI Aayog and FICCI FLO.

CIE sits within IIIT Hyderabad, a research university. It runs three incubators: the Deeptech Incubator, the MedTech Incubator (OJAS) and the Social Tech Incubator (AIC). The Deeptech Incubator is the oldest and was launched in 2008. Its accelerator programmes are Avishkar and the XR Startup Program Accelerator.

Locations

CIE is in Hyderabad, India. Selection pitches for Avishkar are held at IIIT-H.