Kotak Mahindra Bank

Choosing a programme

• Revenue-generating startups with a market-ready product can compare Season 3 and the Velocity cohort. Season 3 also requires DPIIT recognition.
• Early-revenue startups with social impact and a focus on sustainability should look at the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park cohort.
• Women founders should look at the Women Startup Program, which is equity-free and runs with NSRCEL.

How applications work

• Each programme has its own application route. Start from the programme page linked on this profile.
• Closing dates differ between partner pages. For Season 3, the T-Hub page gives 6 October 2026, while the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park page gives October 2026 with no day.
• For the Velocity cohort, the programme card reads closed while the page also says applications are open. Confirm the status with NSRCEL before you assume either.

How selection works

• Places are limited. Season 2 drew 3,088 applications and selected 71 startups.
• Being selected does not guarantee a grant. In the Velocity cohort, grants go to a select set of startups.
• In the Women Startup Program, grant support depends on eligibility and performance.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited runs Kotak BizLabs, a corporate social responsibility (CSR) accelerator for early-revenue startups. The programmes run through partner incubators across India, and the bank also sells current accounts for startups.

How the programmes work

Kotak BizLabs runs as cohorts through partner incubators, rather than as an open-ended residency. Season 3 is a six-to-eight-month acceleration programme that mixes online learning with in-person workshops, networking sessions and ecosystem events. The bank's Season 2 release described the programme as six to nine months, so the stated length differs between its own releases.

Selected startups do not give up equity. The Season 3 page says there are no application or participation fees. Grant funding goes to selected startups, and the grant ceiling has differed between seasons: the bank's first-season release gave a lower ceiling than its later releases.

Under the bank's name sit several routes. Season 3 is delivered through five partner incubators. The Velocity cohort is run by NSRCEL at IIM Bangalore. The IIM Calcutta Innovation Park cohort takes 20 startups. The Women Startup Program, run with NSRCEL, is equity-free and offers support for one to two years.

The routes run on different timetables. The IIM Calcutta Innovation Park cohort has its call open until October 2026, announces its cohort in November 2026, and runs capacity building and mentoring until July 2027. The Season 3 closing date and the Velocity status both differ between the pages that describe them, so check each route's own page before planning an application.

Who can apply

Season 3 is open to startups registered as entities recognised by DPIIT, an Indian government recognition, and to revenue-generating startups with a market-ready product and an existing customer base. The bank says it welcomes startups across agritech, climate tech, clean tech, deep tech, fintech, edtech, healthtech, sustainability, supply chain and logistics, waste management, indigenous arts and crafts, sustainable manufacturing, inclusive technology, electric mobility and other impact-driven solutions.

The Velocity cohort is for ventures that already generate revenue. The IIM Calcutta Innovation Park cohort is for early-revenue startups with social impact and a focus on sustainability. The Women Startup Program is for women entrepreneurs at different stages of their journey, from idea to scale.

Scale

Season 2 of BizLabs drew 3,088 applications, an 80% increase on the first season. More than 80% of those applications came from outside the four metros. The bank selected 71 startups for the season, and 53% of them are from non-metro locations. These are the bank's own figures.

The bank reports a national footprint of 2,218 branches and 2,749 ATMs, including cash recyclers, as on 31 December 2025. It also has branches in GIFT City and DIFC in Dubai.

Startup current accounts

Kotak sells startup current accounts in a regular and a premium version. Each has its own minimum deposit and minimum average quarterly balance, set out on the bank's product pages.

News reports from October 2025 describe a memorandum of understanding between the bank and DPIIT. Those reports say recognised startups get zero-balance current accounts, along with working capital and term loans. The bank's startup account pages do not describe DPIIT-specific account terms, and the memorandum has not been confirmed on the bank's or DPIIT's own pages. Check the terms directly with the bank before relying on those reports.

Who runs it

The bank runs Kotak BizLabs as a corporate social responsibility initiative. Its partner incubators run the cohorts with it: IIMA Ventures, NSRCEL at IIM Bangalore, T-Hub, FITT at IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta Innovation Park. Each partner publishes its own page for the cohort it runs, and those pages do not always agree on dates.