Incubein Foundation (RTMNU BIC), Nagpur

Start with the named programme

The application portal offers six routes and only two work. Use the startup route. Of the two startup forms on the site, pick the longer registration form that names the INCUBEIN Startup Program 2026-27 - it is the one tied to a real, current call, and it asks the questions the team will actually assess you on.

Decide what you are asking for

The form asks whether you want incubation, an investor connect, or seed funding, and it asks early. Pick one deliberately. Incubation is the default route for an idea or an early product; investor connect suits a team that already has traction and wants introductions; seed funding is the one that puts your numbers under the most scrutiny, so only choose it if your revenue answer and your deck can carry it.

You do not need a registered company

Not registered is a valid answer to the legal entity question, and DPIIT recognition is optional. Students are explicitly in scope - the form asks for your college or university. You do not have to be from Nagpur University to apply.

What reviewers ask for

Have these ready before you open the form:

• a clear statement of the problem you are solving and the main theme of the idea
• two named competitors
• revenue earned so far, if any
• your stage, sector, year of establishment and team size
• whether you have applied to any other incubator, with details
• whether any litigation is pending against you or your company
• a presentation as a single PDF, and your company logo

The competitor question and the prior-incubator question are the two founders most often leave thin. Name real competitors and say how you differ; being candid about other applications is normal and expected.

Expect to follow up by phone

The form promises only that the team will review your submission and get in touch. No decision timeline is published, the events page is empty and the startup directory does not load, so do not read silence on the website as a decision. Three contacts are named at the top of the registration form - call one of them if you have not heard back.

Check the centre is still running the call

Much of the site is unedited template content and some of it is out of date, including a careers address on a domain that no longer exists. Before you spend time on a long application, confirm by phone that the 2026-27 intake is open.

INCUBEIN Foundation is the business incubation centre of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, on the university campus on Amravati Road in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It is a not-for-profit Section 8 company, set up in 2019 as a subsidiary of the university. Its own letterhead describes it as empowered by the Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of Maharashtra, under the Maharashtra State Innovation Society scheme.

It is usually written as INCUBEIN or the RTMNU Business Incubation Centre, and both names refer to the same organisation. It now runs its own website, incubein.com, and takes applications there. The incubation page it used to keep on the Nagpur University website has been removed, so the university site is no longer the place to look.

How programmes work

There is one named programme on the site: the INCUBEIN Startup Program 2026-27. It is described as support for innovative startups and aspiring entrepreneurs, through mentorship, incubation support, networking and access to resources. The registration form asks which of three things you are applying for: incubation, an investor connect, or seed funding. Beyond that one line, the site does not set out a cohort length, a curriculum, a demo day or a decision timeline. The form says only that the team will review your submission and contact you about next steps.

Alongside the programme, the site lists the kinds of help it offers as short tiles: mentorship from industry experts, help with intellectual property and regulatory questions, introductions to investors through demo days and pitch events, government liaison and corporate partnerships, workshops and bootcamps, co-working space, and support from idea through to product-market fit. These are one-line claims with no page behind them, so treat them as a description of intent rather than a list of things you can book.

Who can apply

The application is open, and nothing on it restricts applicants to students or staff of the university. You do not need a registered company: the legal entity question includes an option for not registered, alongside sole proprietorship, partnership, LLP, private limited, public limited, trust or NGO, and Section 8 company. Recognition by DPIIT is asked for only if you have it, as an optional field, so it is not a gate.

The form takes founders at four stages: ideation, MVP or pre-revenue, early traction, and growth or scale. It names twelve sectors it works across - agritech, healthtech, fintech, edtech, cleantech, AI and machine learning, e-commerce, IoT, SaaS, social impact, cybersecurity and blockchain - plus manufacturing and an other option. It asks for your school, college or university, so students are clearly in scope. It also asks whether you have applied to any other incubator, and whether there is pending litigation against you or your company.

How to apply

Everything runs on incubein.com. The application portal offers six routes, but only two of them lead anywhere: the startup route and the mentor route. The investor, partner, internship and volunteer cards link back to the portal page itself, so there is no way to register through them today. The startup route has two forms on the site - a short seven-step one, and a longer registration form for the 2026-27 programme - with nothing explaining which to use. The longer one names the programme and asks the fuller set of questions, so it is the safer starting point. It ends with an upload of your presentation as a PDF and your company logo. Three staff members are named at the top of the form as the people to call with questions.

What we could not verify

Large parts of the website are unedited template content, and a founder should know which parts before relying on them. The home page counters all render as zero. The startup directory and the careers openings list never load. The people pages name a board of directors and an operations team whose profiles are generic archetypes, and a group of interns drawn entirely from colleges in Bhopal, several hundred kilometres away, one of which is not a real institution. The three success stories on the home page are stock testimonials naming founders and companies that appear nowhere else. The partner strips are plain text chips naming government bodies and institutes with no relationship stated for any of them; they are not evidence of any recognition or tie-up, and INCUBEIN does not claim one anywhere in its own words.

The numbers on the site also disagree with each other. The mentor network is given as 200 plus in three places and as 20 plus in a fourth. The startup count is given as 90 plus in two places, as hundreds of founders in another, and as zero by the counters, while the directory shows none. We have published none of these figures. The events page carries no events.

Who runs it and where

The centre reports into the Board of Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship of Nagpur University, and the foundation has its own managing director and board; no names for these are published. Dr. Abhay Deshmukh is the long-standing contact for the centre and has been named as its director on earlier university material. The 2026-27 registration form also names Sanket Dahiwale and Shubham Soni as contacts.

The office is on the university campus on Amravati Road, near Futala Road, Nagpur 440033. It lists working hours of Monday to Friday, 10:30 AM to 6:00 PM, and Saturday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. There is a careers page inviting speculative applications, but the address it gives sits on a domain that no longer resolves, so use the contact page instead. There is only one location.