MUTBI, Manipal

Start with free membership

Anyone can register as a MUTBI member at no cost, through the registration link on every page of its site. This is the front door: it is how you get on the list that is notified when a funding call opens, and it costs you nothing to do it today rather than when you need it.

Pick the right route in

• Still shaping the company and the first build: ask about pre-incubation. It runs 6 to 12 months and gives you co-working space and mentoring.
• You have a working prototype and some traction: apply for incubation. It runs an initial 18 months and can be extended by another 18.
• You are a science or engineering graduate with a business idea but no company yet: NIDHI-EIR is the fellowship built for exactly that.
• You have an idea for a physical product and need to build the first prototype: NIDHI-PRAYAS.
• You are already incubated and need money to reach the market: NIDHI-SSP, or MUTBI's own seed support.
• You are in a Tier II or Tier III city working on deep tech, AI, IoT, semiconductors or cybersecurity: the two MeitY GENESIS tracks.

MUTBI is open to founders from outside MAHE, so do not rule yourself out for having no Manipal connection.

How applications work

Each scheme opens in intakes rather than staying open all year. When a call is shut, the programme page carries an expression-of-interest link. Register on it. That is how MUTBI contacts you when the next intake opens, and it is the same mechanism used for CADRE.

For incubation you will be asked for three documents: an executive summary, a detailed business plan and a pitch deck. Prepare all three before you approach, not after. Your proposal then goes to a committee, and incubation is granted on the committee's recommendation.

For NIDHI-PRAYAS, screening runs 6 to 8 weeks from the day applications close. Only shortlisted applicants are contacted and invited to present to the committee. If you have heard nothing in that window, treat it as a no; MUTBI does not give feedback on applications it did not select, and the committee's decision is final.

Check the eligibility fine print first

These schemes reject on technicalities more often than on the idea:

• NIDHI-EIR needs a science or engineering degree or diploma, either four years of full-time study or a three-year course plus two years of work after it. You cannot draw any other salary or fellowship at the same time, and you must work on the venture full time. It is not meant to cover a gap between jobs or to support you through a degree.
• NIDHI-PRAYAS is for a physical product prototype only, buildable within 18 months, and only if the product has not already passed prototype stage. You must own the knowhow or IP, or hold the right to use it.
• NIDHI-SSP requires a company registered in India, at least 51% held by Indian promoters, at least three months already spent with the incubator, and customer validation behind your value proposition. DPIIT registration is preferred. It is not open to Indian subsidiaries of foreign companies, and preference goes to startups that have not already taken central or state government funding.
• MeitY GENESIS is restricted to applicants from Tier II and Tier III cities, and to a defined sector list. Its entrepreneur-in-residence support is given only once, and applicants who have already taken significant private or government funding for the same idea are unlikely to qualify. The matching fund additionally rules out companies supported under TIDE 2.0 (Scale-up) or SAMRIDH.

What reviewers look for

MUTBI's published screening criteria for its prototype grant are the clearest statement of what it weighs: innovation, potential for commercialisation and venture creation, team capability, and commitment. Incubation asks for the same things in different words, a good team with a real innovation, a prototype and traction. A clear, actionable plan for how you would spend the support, prototype work, market research or customer validation, is explicitly wanted on the GENESIS side.

Get in touch

Write to mutbi.mit@manipal.edu or call the Manipal office. The contact form on the site does not reliably send, so use email.

MUTBI, the Manipal Universal Technology Business Incubator, is the technology business incubator of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). It works from the fourth floor of the Advanced Research Center at Madhav Nagar, Manipal, in Udupi district, Karnataka. Its society was incorporated in June 2009, it was recognised as a technology business incubator by the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) of the Department of Science & Technology in September 2009, and it began operating in March 2010. Its own pages describe it as one of 54 technology business incubators NSTEDB funds to promote innovation-driven startups in Udupi district.

Who can apply

MUTBI is not restricted to the university. Asked directly whether the incubator is only for MAHE members, its own answer is that it is open to all. It sets out to nurture entrepreneurship among students, faculty and people of the region, so a founder with no Manipal connection can approach it the same way a final-year student can. Registering as a MUTBI member costs nothing.

Its four thrust areas are InfoTech, HealthTech, AgriTech and CleanTech: software, cybersecurity and AI; telemedicine, medical devices and health data; precision farming, agribusiness automation and food technology; and sustainable energy, waste management and eco-friendly products. The chief executive's own account of the incubator's work adds social innovation to that list.

How incubation works

There are two residency stages. Pre-incubation runs 6 to 12 months and is meant for teams still forming the company and still building the first version of the product. Pre-incubation teams get co-working space and mentoring, and further funding may follow depending on how the work goes.

Incubation is the next step, for teams that already have a working prototype, a real innovation and some traction. Applicants submit an executive summary, a detailed business plan and a pitch deck, and are then presented to a committee. On the committee's recommendation, incubation is granted for an initial 18 months, with dedicated space, mentoring and other support. Reviews are regular and compliance is mandatory throughout. A further 18 months is possible where progress and need justify it.

Funding programmes

MUTBI is an implementing centre for three DST NIDHI schemes. NIDHI-EIR is a fellowship for aspiring entrepreneurs with a science or engineering background, paid monthly for 12 months and extendable to 18; it cannot be held alongside any other salary or fellowship, and recipients are expected to work on the venture full time. MUTBI has run it since 2017. NIDHI-PRAYAS is a proof-of-concept grant for innovators aged 18 and over who want to turn an idea into a physical prototype within 18 months; MUTBI was recognised as a PRAYAS centre in 2021. NIDHI-SSP is seed funding for startups that have already spent at least three months with the incubator and have validated their product with customers; MUTBI reached the NIDHI Seed Support System in 2022.

Separately, MUTBI offers seed support of its own to incubated startups, as a loan or against equity, for product development, commercialisation or scale-up. Since 2024 it has also been an implementing partner for GENESIS, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's scheme for startups in Tier II and Tier III cities. GENESIS has two tracks here: an entrepreneur-in-residence grant for students and for founders of DPIIT-registered startups under two years old working in electronic design and manufacturing, deep-tech software or ICT; and a matching investment fund that invests in market-ready, DPIIT-registered companies on a one-for-one basis against outside money they have already raised.

The NIDHI and GENESIS schemes run in intakes rather than continuously. Each carries an expression-of-interest link so you are told when the next call opens. MUTBI also runs occasional calls of its own; in 2024 it ran one for startups in environmental conservation and climate innovation, covering circular economy and waste, carbon capture, energy transition and mobility, and sustainable food and agriculture.

Two further programmes carry MUTBI's name. CADRE, short for Creating And Developing youR Enterprise, was launched in 2022 and is listed among the programmes it offers; it takes expressions of interest between calls. MARInE.ai, short for Manipal Accelerating Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in AI, was announced in 2025. Neither has a published syllabus, intake or eligibility list, so ask directly if either is what you want.

Facilities

Pre-incubation teams get co-working space and incubated startups get dedicated space, but the bigger draw is equipment. Through MAHE, startups can use the central instrumentation: scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, ion chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance, atomic force microscopy, spectrophotometry, RF sputtering, nanofibre electrospinning, a spin coater, a microgravure coater, a thermal camera and an injection moulding machine. Other equipment across MAHE's institutes, departments and centres is open to startups too. Beyond hardware, MUTBI facilitates market surveys, product marketing, patenting, and financial and legal services, and makes introductions to external agencies, angel investors and venture capital funds.

Track record

MUTBI names 55 companies as currently incubated and 29 as graduated, 84 in all. Incubatees include Blackfrog Technologies, Kumudha HealthTech, OSIND Meditech, Udupi eSamudaay Digital Services, Panjurli Labs, Malpe Meen, Mazout Electric and Next GenINKs. Graduates include Suma Genomics, Fracktal Works, CUOR Stem Cellutions, Ekam Rehab Tech, VISINT Healthcare and Manipal Printronics. The incubator has been an ISBA member since 2011, took MSME support for startups from 2013, received CSR funding from TE Connectivity Bangalore in 2014, began a collaboration with Eagle10 Ventures in 2021, and received an HDFC Parivartan startup CSR grant in 2024.

Who runs it

Dr. Santhosha Rao has been chief executive since June 2023, after four years as assistant general manager. He spent more than 25 years in Manipal Institute of Technology's Department of Information & Communication Technology, and represented MAHE and MUTBI as a delegate on the German Academic Exchange Service's Incubators Connect programme. Varun Venugopal Gupta is assistant general manager at MUTBI's satellite centre on MAHE's Bengaluru campus. The board is chaired by MAHE's Vice Chancellor, Lt. Gen. (Dr.) M D Venkatesh, and includes MAHE's registrar, the head of NSTEDB as the DST representative, the director of MIT Manipal, and industry members from MEMG, Manipal Foundation, Manipal Dot Net and MILES.

Locations and events

MUTBI is at Madhav Nagar, Manipal, Karnataka 576104, with a satellite centre on MAHE's Bengaluru campus. MAHE also runs the Manipal Entrepreneurship Summit, an annual event for its alumni entrepreneurs; around 60 alumni entrepreneurs and industry figures have taken part across previous editions.