Navyug Navachar Foundation

Check you fit the gate first

• NNF's policy is for IET Lucknow students, faculty, staff and alumni, and for any person or startup from Uttar Pradesh that will operate in Uttar Pradesh.
• If you are outside both groups, the policy does not cover you. Ask the team before you spend time on the form.
• You do not need an incorporated company to apply. The form asks about MCA, Startup India and DPIIT status but does not require them.

Apply

• Use the Apply for Incubation form on the NNF site. Have your founder details, a short summary of the startup and a pitch deck ready; the deck upload is required.
• Pick your stage honestly: idea, proof of concept, prototype, product development or ready to market.
• Say what support you want. The form asks, and mentoring, co-working, lab access, legal help and investor introductions are all on offer.
• If you are an IET Lucknow student or alumnus, the form asks for your roll number or passing year. These founders pay no incubation fee.

What happens next

• Applications are screened and shortlisted, and shortlisted teams pitch at a business pitch event before the announcement of who joins.
• Onboarding goes through the StartinUP portal, so create your account there once you are selected.
• Incubation runs for twelve months, with two possible six-month extensions at NNF's discretion.

Before you commit

• Co-working startups must be at the centre at least three days a week.
• Free incubation lasts the first twelve months. After that a small monthly fee applies, lower for virtual incubation.
• You cannot use NNF's address to register your company.
• Funding is not part of the deal. NNF connects you to investors and to grant routes, but the AKTU Innovation Hub schemes in its policy have their own gates, and some are for AKTU-linked students and alumni only. Ask which are open.
• Write to nnf@ietlucknow.ac.in if the site's funding pages are unclear. They are thin and some event pages are out of date.

Navyug Navachar Foundation (NNF) is the incubation centre of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), Lucknow. It is a Section 8 company, set up in 2022 under the guidance of the IET Lucknow director, and it works from the third floor of the New Mechanical & Chemical Building on the IET campus. It takes in IET students, faculty, staff and alumni, and also any person or startup from Uttar Pradesh that plans to run its company from the state.

Who can apply

NNF's incubation policy says it applies to the faculty, staff, research scholars and students of IET Lucknow, together with any person, startup or upcoming entrepreneur belonging to Uttar Pradesh who is willing to set up company operations in Uttar Pradesh. So the gate is the state, not the campus: a founder from outside IET can apply, but should be from Uttar Pradesh and expect to operate there. The online application form asks you to pick a category: aspiring entrepreneur, student entrepreneur of IET Lucknow, student entrepreneur of another institute, woman entrepreneur, specially abled entrepreneur, startup founder or other. It also asks whether your company is registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and on the Startup India portal, but it does not make either a condition of applying. Stage options run from idea stage through proof of concept, prototype and product development to ready to market. For startup recognition the policy follows the Government of India definition: up to ten years from incorporation and turnover that has not crossed the stated ceiling.

How incubation works

Applications go through six steps: online submission, screening, shortlisting, announcement, a business pitch event, and then the start of the programme. The form needs a pitch deck upload. The site shows no deadline or cohort dates, so treat intake as open and ask before you assume otherwise. Onboarding is done through the StartinUP portal, and the incubation period starts from the date you join.

Incubation lasts twelve months. The policy allows two further extensions of six months each, at NNF's discretion. Under the policy, incubation is free for the first twelve months. After that a small monthly fee applies to startups using the co-working space, and a lower one to virtually incubated startups. Students, faculty, staff and alumni of IET Lucknow pay no fee. Startups that use the co-working space must be present at least three days a week, and may not use NNF's address as their registered office. Intellectual property created by an incubatee stays with the incubatee. The policy does not say whether NNF takes equity in the startups it incubates.

What you get

NNF lists co-working space, shared conference and discussion rooms, round-the-clock internet and electricity, a computer system, a cafe, and access to the laboratories, workshops and library of IET Lucknow. Those labs belong to the host institute and are shared on an availability basis; NNF does not publish a list of them. On the support side it offers business mentoring from mentors, angel investors and industry executives, guidance on intellectual property, help with company formation and with Startup UP and Startup India registrations, introductions to lawyers, accountants and marketers, training sessions, and a chance to pitch to angel and institutional investors. NNF says it acts as a facilitator and works on a best-efforts basis, so it does not promise funding or investment.

Funding routes

The policy reproduces several funding guidelines from the Innovation Hub of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU), Lucknow: a monthly sustenance allowance for pass-out student entrepreneurs, a prototype development fund, a seed fund, a patent filing grant and a grassroots innovator fund. Several of these are open only to students or alumni of AKTU-linked colleges, and the sustenance allowance has a family-income limit. The seed fund and the patent grant are written for NNF incubatees, and the seed fund involves giving up a small equity share after the startup becomes profitable. The policy also says incubated startups can be recommended for the incentives under the Uttar Pradesh Startup Policy 2020, which include a sustenance allowance, prototype grant, marketing or seed grant and event participation grant, and that the startup may be asked to pitch before it is recommended. These are written in a 2023 policy document, and NNF's funding pages are thin, so confirm with the team which routes are open when you apply.

Track record

NNF's homepage counters show more than 60 startups supported, more than 30 currently incubated, more than 20 that received government grants, and more than 30 mentors and industry experts. These are self-reported and undated. The Uttar Pradesh StartinUP register of recognised incubators lists NNF with a count of 26 startups, so the two sources do not agree. The site's Incubated Startups page names twenty startups, including Greenwear, Stufit, Blendmest, Bikalp Herbal, Right Path Predictor, Oroganica and GreenPavak. Right Path Predictor is also the company credited as the web partner on NNF's own site.

Who runs it and where

The homepage lists Prof. Seethalekshmi K, Dr. Pushkar Tripathi and Dr. Pradeep Kumar as directors of the foundation and Mr. Sandeep Kumar as manager. The centre is at IET Lucknow, Lucknow 226021, Uttar Pradesh. NNF also runs events through the year, including idea hackathons, Smart India Hackathon preparation and mentoring sessions, intellectual property workshops, founder roundtables and a student startup award held with the Entrepreneurs' Organization. Its site does not carry a careers page. You can write to the team at nnf@ietlucknow.ac.in.

What to check

NNF is a campus-hosted incubator with a state-level gate, so it fits founders in Uttar Pradesh and IET Lucknow's own community best. It is listed on the StartinUP register with an approval date in September 2022; the register gives no validity period or status. The site does not state any DPIIT, Atal Incubation Centre or NIDHI recognition for NNF, and we have not recorded one.