NITK-STEP (NITK Science & Technology Entrepreneurs' Park)

Which route fits you

If you want space, mentoring and campus access for a technology product, apply for incubation — it is the one thing STEP takes applications for all year. If you want to build on research done at NIT Karnataka, look at the technology licensing route in the same policy document first: inventors hold the first right of refusal to license institute intellectual property into their own company, and having that licence is also one of the two ways the policy lets an outside founder into STEP. If you only want training, watch the events page rather than applying for incubation; the entrepreneurship, women's entrepreneurship, faculty development and internship programmes run in batches and nothing is listed as open at the moment.

Settle the eligibility question before you write anything

STEP's own page says you do not need to be from NITK. The institute's Innovation & Entrepreneurship Policy of April 2024 says outsiders incubate by licensing NITK technology and/or by having regular institute faculty, staff or students as co-founders. These are not the same rule. If you have no NITK connection, email the office and get an answer in writing before you build an application around either reading — it changes whether you need to line up a co-founder or a licence first.

How applications work

There is no form to fill online. Download the policy PDF from the about page; the application for startup incubation is its last page. Send it by email or as a hardcopy. There is no deadline and no application fee, so timing is yours to choose. Applicants from inside the institute must route the application through their head of department, or the administrative head of their section if they are staff.

Have these ready, because the form asks for them outright: founder details and any mentor or consultant you are bringing; the company name and, if you are already incorporated, the registration date and registered office address; the field of business in a line; your full-time employee count; any funding already secured and where it came from; your income over the last twelve months; how much space in square feet you need at STEP; and which other NITK facilities you will want. Attach a product brochure and a business model. Write the business plan too — the policy asks for team members, advisors, the product, who your customers are, go-to-market, supply chain and financial sustainability, and it is the document the committee reads.

How selection works

Your application is screened by experts, then you are invited to present the business plan to the institute's Innovation & Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee, which assesses whether the venture is feasible and viable. The committee recommends approval to the competent authority, and you then sign an agreement with STEP. The committee is chaired by the Dean (Research & Consulting), co-chaired by the professor in charge of STEP, convened by the professor in charge of the Institute Innovation Council, and includes the faculty in charge of the E-Cell plus one technical and one commercial domain expert, with more experts co-opted case by case.

What the panel is looking for

The committee's stated job is feasibility and viability, so the presentation should carry a business case and not only a demonstration. Two commercial experts sit on it, and three startup founders sit on the governing body, so expect questions on customers, pricing and go-to-market rather than on novelty alone. The policy frames the technology in terms of readiness level, from concept through prototype to product launch, so saying where you are on that scale and what the next step costs you in time is useful. A private limited company is the preferred form for incubation, and an idea-stage team will be asked how it plans to get there.

Read the agreement carefully

Before you sign, get the numbers in writing. STEP's questions page describes the charges as a refundable security deposit and workspace rent depending on the facilities you take. The institute policy says the agreement also sets a percentage of equity to STEP and that rent rises sharply in later years, deliberately, to make successful startups move out. Incubation is three years — STEP says this may be extended, the policy says you are expected to leave within it — and the agreement is renewed each year against a progress report and audited financial statements. Ask which applies to you, and what the renewal test actually is.

Things to check yourself

Parts of the site are out of date: the events calendar is frozen, the updates page is unfinished, and the counters do not match the incubatee and graduate lists published on the same site. Treat the numbers as claims and ask the office directly about current openings, current occupancy, and what space is actually free.

NITK-STEP is the Science & Technology Entrepreneurs' Park on the National Institute of Technology Karnataka campus at Srinivasnagar, Surathkal, Mangaluru. It incubates technology startups, runs entrepreneurship and skills training for the region, and has its own chairman, governing body and faculty advisory team separate from the institute's board. Its site is step.nitk.ac.in, which NIT Karnataka's own homepage links to as STEP.

What they support

The thrust areas STEP names are information technology, electronics and robotics, multidisciplinary technology integration and engineering design, and it says startups from other domains are also encouraged to apply. Idea-stage founders are welcome: STEP says it will mentor a concept towards a workable business. Student-led startups, including final-year students and recent graduates, are encouraged too. The incubation application asks for the number of full-time employees and company income over the previous twelve months, so operating companies are in scope as well as pre-revenue teams.

On whether you need an NITK connection, the site and the institute policy do not say the same thing. STEP's own page says plainly that you do not have to be from NITK and that it is open to all eligible applicants. NIT Karnataka's Innovation & Entrepreneurship Policy, dated 16 April 2024 and published by STEP as its application form, is narrower: part-time faculty and staff, alumni and outsiders not belonging to the institute can incubate at STEP by licensing relevant NITK technology and/or by having regular institute faculty, staff or students as co-founders. An outside founder with no NITK link should ask which reading applies before spending time on an application. Regular NITK faculty and staff may join a startup as mentor, consultant or co-founder but not as sole founder, and need approval.

Programmes

The standing offer is three-year incubation on campus. Applications run all year with no deadline and no application fee. Once selected, founders sign an agreement with STEP, set up their office and begin. STEP's questions page describes the charges as a refundable security deposit plus workspace rent depending on the facilities taken; the institute policy adds that the agreement also specifies a percentage of equity to STEP, and that rent rises sharply in later years to push successful startups out and close unsuccessful ones. The policy says startups are expected to graduate and move out within three years, while STEP's own page says the three years may be extended. Agreements are renewed annually against a progress report and audited financial statements. A private limited company is the preferred form for incubation.

Separately, STEP runs training: entrepreneurship development programmes, technology-based and women's entrepreneurship development programmes, a faculty development programme, skill development and short-term programmes, a fundamentals of intellectual property programme, and a long run of technical internships on subjects such as EV design with MATLAB, IoT with machine learning, AI and Python, full-stack and MERN web development, Arduino and battery management systems, and generative AI. Every one of these sits under Completed on STEP's events page, with nothing currently listed as upcoming or ongoing, so treat them as recurring rather than open. The homepage carries a standing notice for an Industrial Relationship Internship Programme described as coming in August, with no year and no launch date given.

A third route exists for founders who want to build on institute research. NITK can license its intellectual property, and inventors hold the first right of refusal to license it into their own startup; the same policy document carries the licensing application form.

Facilities and support

Incubated startups get furnished office space in STEP with utilities and access to its common facilities; the application asks how much space in square feet you need. STEP also lists a SEARCH Lab, described as an R&D hub for startups working on science, engineering and technology, the Yogakshema building maintained by the CPWD, executive training halls, boardrooms and conference spaces, round-the-clock power and water with dedicated generator sets, and an adventure and bootcamp corner. No equipment lists or space sizes are published.

Beyond STEP's own rooms, incubatees can use NIT Karnataka's Main Library, Central Research Facility, guest house and departmental labs at charges lower than those for regular industry. Those belong to the institute, not to STEP. Softer support runs through a network of mentors, industry experts, peers and alumni, guidance on legal compliance, company incorporation and intellectual property through partner experts, and collaboration with institute faculty on technology development. STEP says it puts startups through government-backed programmes from bodies including the Department of Science and Technology, the MSME ministry and IIM Bangalore; it does not state that it holds a recognition of its own under any of them, and we found none, so we record none.

Track record

STEP began as an Entrepreneurs Development Centre on the NITK campus in 1991, had its foundation stone laid in 1995, started operations in 1997 as KREC-STEP, was renamed NITK-STEP in 2002 and became a self-sustained society in 2005. A list of twelve Directors In-Charge runs from December 1991 to the present.

Its published counts do not agree with its own lists, so both are worth stating. The homepage and history timeline claim more than a hundred startups incubated to date and twenty currently under incubation; the graduated-startups page itself names around thirty-five ventures with years from 2015 to 2025, and the incubatees page names eighteen companies. The training counters are larger and unrelated: STEP reports 367 programmes run and close to 72,500 people trained through them. All of these are STEP's own undated figures.

Named graduates include StackWalk Technologies and Penzigo Technologies Solutions (2025), Kambala Solutions (2024), Kaarbaar Online Services (2023), Greenthrust Oil Industries and Reuleaux Solutions (2021), Dime Klear (2020), Sulokam Technologies (2019), Aakruthi3D (2018) and Cybrhome (2016). Companies currently at STEP include Lexify AI, Sasyaani, Quadrivalent Labs, Expert Vision Labs, Airat Systems, Bellare GIS Consultancy and Vishuddhi Aqua Tech.

Who runs it

B.V.R Mohan Reddy, founder and chairman emeritus of Cyient, is chairman of NITK-STEP. Dr. Subray R. Hegde has been Director In-Charge since November 2023. Administration and finance are handled by Sujith Raj as manager and Swapna as accounts officer. The eleven-member governing body includes the Director of NIT Karnataka, a head of scientific divisions in the Government of India's technology transfer division, the president of the NITK alumni association, MRPL's Director (Refinery), the Executive Director of Bharath Group of Companies, a chartered accountant, and the founders of UniCourt and Niveus Solutions. Eight NITK professors sit on an advisory team.

How to apply

There is no online portal. STEP sets out five steps: download the application form, send the idea by email or hardcopy, application screening, a presentation to an expert committee, and signing the agreement with NITK STEP. The form is the last page of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Policy document linked from STEP's about page. It asks for founder and mentor details, the company name and registration date if incorporated, the registered office address, the field of business, employee count, any funding already secured and its source, income over the previous twelve months, the space you need at STEP and any other NITK facilities you want, with a product brochure and a business model attached. Applications from within the institute go through the head of department or the administrative head of the section. Enquiries go to step@nitk.edu.in or the STEP office phone line. There is no careers page on the site.