Startups Program (incubation)

This is the Centre's main programme for founders. You apply through the incubation application form, choosing physical incubation — a seat at Gurugram, Bengaluru, Gandhinagar or Visakhapatnam — or virtual incubation, where you keep your own base. Applications appear to be rolling: no intake dates or deadlines are published.

What you get

• Enterprise connects for pilots, market validation and first business opportunities, with the Centre noting that enterprises sometimes put strategic capital into promising startups
• Mentors and advisors drawn from industry through the Centre's industry connects
• Access to central and state government opportunities if you sell to government
• Real industry problems to work on through the Co-create Program
• International trade delegations, to reach startup communities outside India
• Shared access to an in-house lab with prototyping, design and testing tools
• Round-the-clock access to office space and maintained infrastructure
• Deals and credits from the Centre's vetted service partners
• An in-house team that works with you on hiring and team building, business model refinement, startup metrics and workshops

Who can apply

• Deep-tech startups working on IoT, AI and machine learning, analytics, AR/VR or robotics
• The Centre calls itself sector agnostic, and names agritech, healthtech, Industry 4.0, energy, water, cleantech, automotive and smart cities as the spaces it prefers
• No company age, incorporation or state restriction is published
• The form asks for funding stage and current revenue but sets no bar on either

How selection works: The Centre publishes four criteria — technology-led innovation, team, product-market fit, and impact. No timeline, interview stage or panel is described.

How to apply: Fill the incubation application form on the Centre's site. It asks for your technologies and verticals, whether you have a hardware product, patents or copyright applied for or granted, how your solution beats existing ones in about a hundred words, founder profiles, your reasons for seeking incubation, seats needed, funding stage, current revenue, a current address and a pitch deck of up to 10 MB. If the form will not submit you can send your deck by email instead. General enquiries go to co-innovate@nasscom.in.