KONERU LAKSHMAIAH EDUCATION FOUNDATION

Choosing the right programme

• Still shaping an idea, or a student or working professional exploring startups: start with pre-incubation. It runs 3 - 4 months and charges a registration fee.
• Already have a proof of concept, prototype or working model, and a registered company, LLP or partnership: apply for incubation.
• Aged 18 to 35, with a degree or diploma, and living in a community near Vijayawada or Guntur: the Community Innovator Fellowship is built for you.

How applications work

• Each programme links to its own application form from its page. The pages do not state deadlines or whether intake is open, so check the form or write to acic.klstartups@kluniversity.in before you plan around a date.
• Read the incubation eligibility list before applying. Indian citizenship, age 18 or over, registration type, company age and turnover are all checked.

How selection works

• The fellowship uses screening, a shortlist, a presentation or interview, and a committee decision.
• The pages do not describe selection for pre-incubation or incubation.

What reviewers look for

• Incubation applicants should show an innovative product, process or service.
• The business model should be scalable, with a clear route to employment or revenue.
• A working proof of concept or prototype is a stated requirement for incubation.

ACIC-KL Startups Foundation is the Atal Community Innovation Centre run from KL University's Green Fields campus in Vaddeswaram, Andhra Pradesh. It is supported by Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, and works mainly with grassroots and community innovators in the unserved and underserved regions of the state, as well as students and early founders. It is part of Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (KLEF), and the university's own site lists it among its off-campus centres.

How the programmes work

There are three programmes. Pre-incubation is a 3 - 4 month course for people who are still testing an idea, and it runs virtually, on site, or both. Incubation is for early-stage startups that already have a proof of concept, a prototype or a working model. The Community Innovator Fellowship is a one-year programme for community innovators, run with the Atal Innovation Mission and UNDP India, and selected fellows receive grant support.

Who can apply

Pre-incubation is open to students, working professionals and budding entrepreneurs, including ideation-stage founders and startups with a proof of concept. A registration fee applies.

Incubation is open to Indian citizens aged 18 or over. The startup must be registered as a private limited company, sole proprietorship, one person company, partnership firm or limited liability partnership. It must be no more than 7 years old from registration (10 years for biotechnology), its annual turnover must stay within the limit stated on the programme page, and it must not have been formed by splitting up or rebuilding an existing business. Startups with no registration can apply in the names of all founders and must register within 1 year of joining.

The fellowship takes applicants aged 18 to 35 who hold at least a diploma or degree from a recognised university and have intermediate English. Applicants should come from a community within 30km of the Vijayawada or Guntur centres, although fellows from further away can join if they complete set community and centre hours.

How selection works

For the fellowship, the page sets out five steps: call for applications and screening, announcement of shortlisted candidates, a presentation or interview for the shortlist, a final selection by the committee, and then the declaration of results. The programme pages for pre-incubation and incubation do not describe their selection steps.

Facilities

The centre lists a co-working space, a Makers Lab, a Rapid Fab Lab, an IoT lab, an AR/VR lab, an ideation zone and a conference room. Incubation participants are also offered knowledge sessions, lab and prototyping facilities, industry and investor connections, mentorship and advisory support, funding support and technical support.

Pre-incubation includes masterclasses on the startup ecosystem, intellectual property, market research, design thinking, business models, finance and resource management.

Scale

The centre's pages do not agree on how many startups it has supported. The homepage shows 154 startups. The portfolio page lists 83 registered startups and 35 at idea stage. The university's page for its incubation centre lists 132 registered startups and 108 idea-stage startups. The homepage also shows 42 mentors in the mentor pool. These are self-reported figures that the pages do not date, so read them as rough orders of magnitude.

Who runs it

The centre is run by ACIC-KL Startups Foundation. Its about page names V. Ramankanth as CEO, K. Nageswara Rao as manager, and Yakama Lavanya as incubation manager. It also has a young professional on its team.

Locations

The centre's office is on the Green Fields campus in Vaddeswaram, Andhra Pradesh 522502. The fellowship covers communities within 30km of its Vijayawada and Guntur centres. Its contact section gives the Vaddeswaram address and the centre's mail address, acic.klstartups@kluniversity.in, for questions about any of the programmes.