National Design Business Incubator (NDBI), Bengaluru

Choosing the right route

NDBI runs one programme an outside founder can apply to: the NDBI Incubation Program. The other two on its site are not general routes in. The NIDHI Accelerator was for startups already recognised by DPIIT that had market validation and were scaling, and its last call closed in December 2024. The SSIP proof-of-concept support is a Gujarat state scheme for NID students and alumni only.

If you want the Bengaluru campus specifically, say so in your application. NDBI runs a single programme across Ahmedabad and Bengaluru and does not advertise separate intakes for each, so which campus you sit at is a question to raise early rather than assume.

When to apply

Intakes are cohorts, not a rolling door. NDBI has run roughly one call a year, and the last one closed in June 2026, so the programme is between intakes right now. Watch the application page on its site and check back rather than waiting for an announcement elsewhere. Deadlines have been extended by a week or two on several past calls, but do not plan around that.

Getting through eligibility

Three things stop most applications before they are read. You must already be at prototype or MVP stage, so an idea on paper is too early. Your company must be a private limited company, an LLP or a registered partnership, and under 10 years old. And the venture must be building or improving a product, process or service rather than continuing an existing business under a new name. If you have not incorporated yet you can still apply; NDBI gives selected startups three months to complete registration.

How selection works

You fill the application form linked from the NDBI website. Applications go through a preliminary screening first. If you clear that, you are invited to present your idea and business plan to a selection committee, and that committee's recommendation decides who joins the cohort. So prepare a pitch as well as a written form.

What reviewers look for

Design is the lens. NDBI exists to help design-led ventures reach a market, so show the design thinking behind your product and how it differentiates you, not just the technology. That said, NDBI states it will back non-design startups where it can add value and the business can become sustainable, so a clear commercial path matters as much as the design story. The recent cohort called for agritech, ceramic, glass and sanitary ware, healthcare, mobility, space and defence, and toys and games, with room for other sectors.

Be ready to explain what you would use the incubation for. What NDBI offers is space, mentors, help with intellectual property, access to design labs and help with company formation and seed funding, and it runs 18 months with a possible six-month extension. An application that shows what you would do with that time reads better than one that just asks for a seat.

Before you apply

Budget for the one-time, non-refundable registration fee stated on NDBI's application page. Ask what design lab and equipment access actually means from Bengaluru, since the workshop descriptions on the site are NID's and at least one of them is at the Ahmedabad campus. And confirm whether NDBI takes equity; its pages do not say either way. Queries go to communication.ndbi@nid.edu, and the Bengaluru campus can be reached at ndbi.bengaluru@nid.edu.

The National Design Business Incubator (NDBI) is a business incubator hosted inside the National Institute of Design. It is a separate non-profit company registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, not a department of NID, and it runs two operating campuses: a head office in Ahmedabad and this one in Bengaluru, at B-112, Rajajinagar Industrial Estate. Its stated purpose is to help designers and design-led founders turn ideas into products or services that can be sold.

Almost everything NDBI publishes covers the organisation as a whole rather than campus by campus, so read the programme details below as NDBI's, with Bengaluru as one of two places you can sit.

How the incubation programme works

NDBI runs one standing programme, the NDBI Incubation Program. It lasts 18 months, and NDBI may extend it by a further six months if it thinks a startup still needs the support. Selected startups get co-working office space at the Ahmedabad and Bengaluru campuses, mentorship, networking, help with intellectual property, access to design labs, help with seed funding, and support on things like legal work and company formation. The office space is described as air-conditioned and furnished, with a desktop computer, a printer, high-speed internet and design software.

Intakes are run as cohorts rather than continuously. Applications for the most recently advertised cohort closed in June 2026, so the programme is currently between intakes; past calls closed in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025, roughly one a year. There is a one-time, non-refundable registration fee, which NDBI states on its application page.

Two other programmes appear on the site and both are closed. NDBI was selected to run a NIDHI Accelerator, the post-incubation programme of the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board under the Department of Science and Technology. It was aimed at startups already recognised by DPIIT that had market validation and were scaling, applying under one of three areas: women-led entrepreneurship, socially challenged groups and physically challenged groups. It offered 50 hours of one-to-one mentoring per startup, grant support for the top five, online and offline expert sessions, a demo day and investor connects, and 12 months of support after the programme ended. Its last advertised call closed in December 2024.

The third is proof-of-concept support under SSIP 2.0, Gujarat's Student Startup and Innovation Policy. That one is open only to current NID students and NID alumni up to the age of 35, and its last advertised call closed in February 2025. It is a Gujarat state scheme, so it is not a route in for an outside founder in Bengaluru.

Who can apply

The incubation programme is open to any startup registered in India. NDBI says plainly that it is not restricted to NID students. To qualify you must be a private limited company, an LLP or a registered partnership, incorporated not more than 10 years ago, working on the innovation, development or improvement of a product, process or service, not formed by splitting up or reconstructing an existing business, and under the turnover ceiling in the Government of India startup definition. You must be at least at prototype or MVP stage. If you have not registered the company by the time you are selected, you get three months to finish the formalities.

Design is the focus rather than the gate. NDBI says it supports startups outside design too where it thinks it can add value and the business can become sustainable. The most recent cohort invited agritech, ceramic, glass and sanitary ware, healthcare, mobility, space and defence, and toys and games, with an "others" option alongside them.

Facilities

The Bengaluru campus is an office. The only facility NDBI names there is co-working office space, and there is no published list of workshops or labs at Rajajinagar.

The design infrastructure described on NDBI's incubation page belongs to NID, and one piece of it is explicitly located at NID Ahmedabad: the Design Vision Centre, a climate-controlled design support facility that houses a performance visualization lab for viewing 3D design concepts from every angle in real time, and a rapid product development lab with 3D printing for model making. The page also describes NID's Knowledge Management Centre library, a CO2 laser cutting and engraving machine that handles MDF, acrylic, paper, fabric and leather, and a 3D laser scanner. NDBI does not say which campus the laser and scanning equipment sits at, so confirm access before you count on it from Bengaluru.

Intellectual property help runs through NID's IPR Cell, first set up in 1999, which runs awareness sessions and has handled a number of design registrations. NDBI also names outside consultants for patent, copyright and trademark filing.

Scale

NDBI publishes no overall track record. There is no startups-supported total, no funding figure and no jobs number anywhere on the site. What it does publish is lists of names: 28 current incubatees and eight past ones, none of them labelled by campus, so it is not possible to say how many of them are in Bengaluru. Ten mentors are named, from industry, design practice and academia. A recorded session series called Startup Manch puts incubatees in front of industry experts, with nine episodes listed so far.

Its founding year cannot be pinned down. NDBI's own accelerator page says it was established in 2009, a video caption on its home page says it is celebrating 20 years, and the government's incubator directory records 2004. We have left the year out rather than pick one.

Who runs it

The chairman of NDBI's board is the Director of NID Ahmedabad. The board also includes people from Gujarat industry, a former Director of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute, and NID faculty. The operational team is based almost entirely in Ahmedabad, covering the chief executive, programmes, operations and IT. Bengaluru is staffed by an Incubation Manager, Akarsh J.

Locations and contact

The Bengaluru campus is at B-112, Rajajinagar Industrial Estate, Bengaluru 560010, open Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 6 PM, and can be reached at ndbi.bengaluru@nid.edu. The head office is at NID, Paldi, Ahmedabad 380007. NDBI's application page also names Gandhinagar as a campus, though no address or contact is given for it and the support pages mention only Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. NDBI does not publish a careers page.

Government backing

NDBI says it was set up with support from the Department of Science and Technology and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, and that it holds a nodal role for Gujarat's startup and innovation policy along with an approval from the Industries Commissionerate, Government of Gujarat dating from 2016. Those Gujarat roles attach to the Ahmedabad side of the organisation. On the Bengaluru side, the Department of Science and Technology's own directory of technology business incubators lists NDBI twice, once under Gujarat at the NID Paldi address and once under Karnataka at B-112, Rajajinagar Industrial Estate, which is this campus. That directory is visibly out of date, so treat it as evidence that the Bengaluru centre was recognised, not as proof that the support is running today.