MIT Academy of Engineering

Choosing the right programme

• Students with an early idea or project start with pre-incubation.
• Incubation and acceleration are open only after the earlier stage is complete.
• Founders who are not MITAoE students can ask about incubation, since the policy names external members.

How applications work

• Pre-incubation needs E-Cell membership first.
• Send the filled application form to the CEO or the Incubation Manager of MITAoE EDF.
• The form is forwarded through the relevant School Dean.
• A Review Committee interviews you after the form is received.
• Review meetings are described as scheduled at the start of each semester.

How selection works

• The Review Committee assesses the form and recommends it to the CEO.
• The CEO approves entry to each stage.
• Each stage has a fixed period: 6 to 12 months for pre-incubation, 12 to 18 months for incubation, and 6 to 12 months for acceleration.

What reviewers look for

• A business idea clearly distinct from pure research.
• Progress on the idea, such as a business plan, prototype or project.

Intake dates are not published on the centre's pages, which date from 2020 to 2023. Confirm the current intake with the centre before applying.

MIT Academy of Engineering (MITAoE) is an autonomous engineering institute in Alandi Road, Pune, affiliated with Savitribai Phule Pune University. Its startup support runs through MITAoE Entrepreneurial Development Foundation (MITAoE EDF), a non-profit section 8 company set up by the institute and incorporated on 7th February 2019.

The institute says it is approved by AICTE and UGC and holds NAAC 'A' accreditation for the cycle from 23 November 2023 to 22 November 2028. Those are institute-level facts; the incubator is the part this page covers.

How the programmes work

The centre runs three stages in order. Pre-incubation is for students who have an idea, business plan, prototype or project that could become a startup, and it runs for six to 12 months. Students who finish it can move into incubation for 12 to 18 months. Students who graduate from incubation can then join an acceleration programme for six to 12 months. Each stage needs approval from the centre's CEO.

The policy expects a business idea to be clearly different from pure research before it is accepted for pre-incubation. Pre-incubation also requires membership of E-Cell, the student entrepreneurship club on campus.

Who can apply

The centre's policy says it provides incubation to MITAoE students and external members. Pre-incubation is written for students. Applicants apply to the CEO or the Incubation Manager on the centre's form, which goes through the relevant School Dean.

A student who wants to form a company is expected to be pre-incubated and incubated at the institute first. The policy allows exceptions only with a justified case, decided by the governance committee.

Facilities

Incubatees get a dedicated co-working space with mentors on board. The centre's page also lists high-speed internet, help with presentation skills, business training, an advisory board and mentors, help with regulatory compliance, help with accounting and financial management, help with technology commercialisation, help with intellectual property rights, and introductions to angel investors, venture capital, bank loans and loan guarantee programmes.

Equity

The policy says the centre may negotiate with an incubated company for a fixed equity consideration of up to 2%, and may also take a share of revenue instead or as well. The terms are agreed case by case.

Recognition

The centre describes itself as a recognised business incubator. It says the institute was approved in 2020 as a Host Institute for an MSME business incubator scheme. The approval period is not stated.

Scale

The centre's pages say 19 student startups were working on their ideas and identified problems at the time of writing. That page is not dated. The portfolio page lists a number of named ventures across food, engineering, education and services, but gives no revenue, funding or exit figures for them.

Locations

The centre is on the institute campus at Alandi Road, Pune 412 105, Maharashtra.