Madanapalle Institute of Technology and Science

Start with what you actually are

• A MITS student: this is your route. The policy is written around you, the pre-incubation extension depends on a director still being a MITS student, and twelve of the seventeen published incubatees are student ventures. Expect to incorporate — the policy says an approved idea is promoted into a partnership firm, an LLP or a private limited company — and you can register that company at the MITS address with the Head of the Institution's permission.
• A MITS faculty member: you can apply, but there is an extra step. A startup promoted by a faculty member has to be approved by the Head of the Institute, routed through the Foundation's manager. Three of the eight companies on the 2023-24 list are faculty ventures, so this does happen.
• A founder with no connection to MITS: the policy does not shut you out — it admits any individual interested in starting a company, and it names a virtual incubation component for companies located outside the campus. But one external incubatee appears in two years of published lists, virtual incubation is named without being described, and there is no online form. Call the Startup Cell and ask before you invest time in an application.

How to apply

• There is no online form and no deadline. Applications are open through the year.
• The form is Annexure I inside the MITS Startup Policy document linked from the Startup Cell page. Print it, fill it and hand it to the Manager or Assistant Manager of MITS Foundation.
• Submit with it: PAN and Aadhaar, an executive summary or business plan on the template printed in the same document, a passport-size photograph of the promoters, and a signed agreement to abide by the incubator's rules.
• Email addresses on the MITS site are hidden from scrapers, so use the Startup Cell's published phone numbers or walk into the Foundation's office in the Research Block.

What the review committee looks for

The committee meets once a month and the policy prints its scoring criteria, so write to them directly:

• How strong the idea is on technology content, innovation, timeliness and market potential
• What intellectual property it generates, and its potential to create more
• Commercial and financial viability, with three-year projections of profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow
• How much money the venture needs and whether that can realistically be raised
• Time to market and break-even period
• Demand and requirement in India, and scalability
• Mentor details and a recommendation letter — line up a faculty or industry mentor before you apply

Expect due diligence on you and your team, and expect to be asked for a revised executive summary or a presentation. Note that MITS Foundation states it will not sign a non-disclosure agreement with any startup at any stage, so plan what you disclose accordingly.

Fit your idea to the thrust areas

The Foundation names education; cyber security, artificial intelligence and ICT; drone technology, manufacturing and automation; building materials and construction technology; and renewable energy, electric mobility and environmental sustainability. It says it is not limited to these, but an application that lands inside one of them is easier to place.

Read the terms before you sign

• It is paid. Office space, computers, printing, internet and electricity carry monthly charges, and lab access is charged at college norms. Charges can be waived case by case — ask.
• There is a revenue share. MITS Foundation takes a stake in revenue you generate for the services it renders, set by technology and graduation period.
• Equity is not published. The incubation agreement is described as covering equity holding, but no rate appears anywhere. Ask for the agreement text before you commit.
• IP is held in association with MITS Foundation. You disclose what you already hold on admission and declare that IP developed during incubation is shared with the Foundation under the MITS IP policy.
• Reporting is real. Yearly and quarterly statements, audited accounts during your stay, and quarterly Companies Act compliance reports. Repeated non-compliance escalates to a notice to vacate.
• The clock is two years, with up to two six-month extensions. Pre-incubation runs six months and can be extended twice by three months, only while a director is still a MITS student.

Don't count on seed money

The seed support is a loan, not a grant. It is sanctioned only to registered companies, only on the merits of each case, only if funds or schemes are available, and only after three months from admission. No amount, window or form is published. Build a plan that works without it.

If you want IP help rather than incubation

The Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre is open to MSMEs and startups as well as to MITS people, and it is sponsored by the Development Commissioner for MSME. It handles awareness and training, prior-art and trademark searches, filing for patents, designs, trademarks, copyrights and geographical indications, and reimbursement claims for granted rights. That route does not require you to be incubated.

What not to chase

• The Next New Venture Studio's Faculty Ambassador call is for full-time MITS faculty only and its stated deadline of 10 May 2025 has passed, though the page still shows it. It is not a founder programme.
• The Innovation Centre's line about arranging a seed fund is an objective of that centre, not an announced scheme.
• The mitsfoundation domain printed on the Foundation's letterhead now belongs to an unrelated training business. Use the university's own Startup Cell page instead.

MITS Foundation is the incubation arm of Madanapalle Institute of Technology & Science - Deemed to be University, in Madanapalle, Annamayya district, Andhra Pradesh. It is a not-for-profit company registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act on 3 October 2024, and it runs what the university calls its Startup and Incubation Cell. Its published policy says incubation is open to any student, faculty member, staff member, alumnus or any individual who wants to start a company, but the route in is a paper form handed to the Foundation's office, and sixteen of the seventeen startups MITS has published as incubated came from its own campus. On paper it is not campus-only; in practice it has admitted one founder from outside in two years of published lists.

Who can apply

The eligibility clause in the MITS Foundation Innovation, Incubation and Startup Policy reads: any student, faculty, staff, alumni or any individual interested to start a company can avail the incubation facility. Applications are open through the year, with no cohort, no deadline and no stated bar by age, geography or category.

The policy names four components, one of them written for companies not on campus at all: pre-incubation, incubation, virtual incubation for companies located outside the MITS campus, and graduation. Virtual incubation is named but never described, so what it includes is not published.

Two conditions apply to people already at MITS. A startup promoted by a faculty member has to be approved by the Head of the Institute, routed through the Foundation's manager. Students whose idea clears the review committee are expected to incorporate as a partnership firm, an LLP or a private limited company, and may register it at the MITS address with the Head of the Institution's permission.

How to apply and how selection works

There is no online application form. The policy says the applicant should hand the form printed as Annexure I of that same document to the Manager or Assistant Manager of MITS Foundation, with PAN and Aadhaar, an executive summary or business plan on the template in the document, a photograph of the promoters, and a signed agreement to the incubator's rules.

A review committee chaired by the Principal meets monthly to judge how feasible the idea is. The policy prints what it scores: the strength of the idea, the intellectual property it creates, commercial and financial viability with three-year projections, funding need, time to market, break-even period, demand in India, scalability, and mentor details with a recommendation letter. MITS Foundation states it will not sign a non-disclosure agreement with any startup at any stage.

What incubation includes, and what it costs

Admitted companies may be offered office space with basic infrastructure, a computing facility and a common meeting room, laboratory access at nominal charges, professional services covering accounting, legal work and IPR, mentoring from MITS faculty and domain experts, interns from among MITS students, and introductions to alumni, investors and industry professionals, with a faculty mentor assigned to take the idea to a prototype.

This is paid incubation: the policy carries a schedule of monthly charges for office space, computers, printing, internet and electricity, any of which may be waived case by case. MITS Foundation also takes a share of the revenue an incubatee generates for the services it renders. The incubation agreement is described as covering equity holding, but no rate is published, so whether equity is taken is not something the pages answer. Incubatees disclose the IP they hold on admission and declare that IP developed during incubation is held in association with MITS Foundation. They file yearly and quarterly statements, get their accounts audited during their stay, and report on Companies Act compliance; repeated non-compliance can end in a notice to vacate.

An incubatee may stay two years, with up to two further extensions of six months each. Pre-incubation ends after six months and can be extended twice by three months, but only while one of the company's directors is still a MITS student.

Seed support exists on paper as a loan, not a grant. It depends on funds or schemes being available, goes only to registered companies, is decided on merit, and can be applied for only three months after admission. No amount, window or form for it is published, so treat it as discretionary.

The Foundation lists its thrust areas as education; cyber security, artificial intelligence and ICT; drone technology, manufacturing and automation; building materials and construction technology; and renewable energy, electric mobility and environmental sustainability, and says it accepts other domains too.

Who has actually been incubated

MITS publishes two annual lists. The 2023-24 list has eight companies: four founded by students, three by faculty, and one, Algain Electronics, typed in its own column as an external incubatee. The 2024-25 list has nine, eight student ventures and one student and faculty. Three of the 2023-24 companies carry a DPIIT registration number; on the 2024-25 list that column reads not applicable throughout.

Other routes on the campus

The Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre is the one MITS service whose stated audience clearly reaches past the campus. Established in the academic year 2023-24 and sponsored by the Development Commissioner for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises at the Ministry of MSME, it serves MSMEs, startups, faculty, researchers and students with IP advice, searches, filing help and reimbursement claims.

The MITS Innovation Centre is older and internal: an innovation office opened on campus on 2 November 2015, offering space, connectivity, entrepreneurship workshops and technology training to students and staff. MITS's pages give the incubation centre's start year as 2015 in one place and 2023 in another, while the Foundation was registered in 2024, so the founding date depends on which page you read.

The Next New Venture Studio is not a founder route. Its one published intake was a Faculty Ambassador call restricted to full-time MITS faculty, with a stated deadline of 10 May 2025. That page still displayed the same passed deadline when it was checked in September 2026, so the only dated application route MITS has ever put online is closed and was never open to founders. The Institution's Innovation Council and the Entrepreneurship Development Cell run the awareness layer for MITS students; the university also has an events feed and a careers page.

Who runs it, and where it is

The Startup and Incubation Cell's published contact is Mr Praneel Kumar Peruru, Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Engineering (Artificial Intelligence). The IPFC steering committee is chaired by Dr C. Yuvaraj, Vice Chancellor in charge, with Dr R. Thulasiram Naidu as IPFC in-charge, and includes an Additional Development Commissioner from the MSME office in Hyderabad and an external IP attorney.

MITS Foundation's letterhead gives its office as the 3rd Floor, Research Block, MITS, Angallu, Madanapalle 517325, Annamayya district. The Startup Cell and IPFC pages give the university address as Madanapalle-Kadiri Road, NH-42, Kurabalakota Mandal, Madanapalle 517325, with the same landline numbers. Email addresses on the MITS site are obscured against scraping, so there is no published inbox, and the mitsfoundation domain on the letterhead now resolves to an unrelated technical training business.