PIEDS
Pilani Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Society
BITS Pilani
BITS Pilani's incubator nurturing deep-tech startups with funding, mentorship & world-class infrastructure.
PIEDS at a glance
| Full name | Pilani Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Society |
|---|---|
| Part of | BITS Pilani |
| Established | 2013 |
| Address | PIEDS, BITS Pilani, Vidya Vihar, Pilani, Rajasthan |
| Programmes | 18 standing programmes · 3 open calls right now |
| Official website | pieds-bitspilani.org |
| tbi@pieds-bitspilani.org |
Programs by PIEDS
3 open now · 11 past · Filter all programs
Programmes they run
Standing programmes at PIEDS, separate from the funding calls above.
Eighteen of the twenty-two funds PIEDS lists carry a published amount, which is more transparency than most incubators manage. What almost none of them carry is eligibility. Before you spend time here, note that several of the largest cheques are closed to outsiders: the Rs 50 lakh Rajkumari Jain fund is for BITS Pilani founders and the Alumni Startup Seed Fund is for BITS alumni. Note also that NIDHI-SSS, at up to Rs 1 crore, is equity rather than grant — the only one on this list that is.
SIDBI iDEX Startup Seed Fund
Grant schemeDefence-tech seed funding, and the largest single cheque PIEDS routes.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
The programmes page states a scheme ceiling of up to Rs 1.5 crore. The call currently advertised on the PIEDS homepage is narrower, at Rs 30-50 lakh, so treat the higher figure as the scheme maximum rather than what a given round awards.
Applications go through PIEDS's Accubate portal.
Smt. Rajkumari Jain Seed Fund for Innovation
Grant schemeUp to Rs 50 lakh, restricted to BITS Pilani founders.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
One of the larger cheques here, and closed to anyone without a BITS Pilani affiliation.
Mookerji Innovation Fund
Grant schemeRs 5-50 lakh, managed by PIEDS.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
The widest range of any PIEDS fund. Eligibility is not published.
NIDHI Seed Support System (NIDHI-SSS)
Grant schemeUp to Rs 1 crore, structured as equity.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
DST scheme. This one is not a grant — PIEDS describes it as equity funding, which sets it apart from most of the money on this page.
Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS)
Grant schemeUp to Rs 50 lakh for prototype development and market entry.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
The national DPIIT scheme, disbursed through approved incubators. Terms are set centrally, so they can be checked independently of PIEDS.
MeitY SAMRIDH
AcceleratorUp to Rs 40 lakh investment plus growth support.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
Ministry of Electronics and IT acceleration programme.
Alumni Startup Seed Fund
Grant schemeRs 5-10 lakh for BITSian founders.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
Explicitly restricted to BITS Pilani alumni.
Womenpreneur For Bharat
AcceleratorUp to Rs 15 lakh for women-led startups.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
The larger of the two women-focused routes at PIEDS.
Saksham
AcceleratorUp to Rs 10 lakh in grants for women-led startups, with mentorship and incubation.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
Runs alongside Womenpreneur For Bharat; PIEDS does not explain how the two differ.
Genesis
FellowshipEntrepreneur-in-Residence fellowship of up to Rs 10 lakh for Tier II and Tier III founders.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
One of the few schemes anywhere that gates on where the founder is from rather than what they are building.
NIDHI PRAYAS
Grant schemeUp to Rs 10 lakh in grants, with lab access and IP support.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
DST scheme aimed at getting a hardware prototype built. Pairs directly with the PRAYAS fabrication lab on site.
NIDHI EiR / Aarogyam Digital Healthcare Accelerator
FellowshipFellowships of up to Rs 3.6 lakh, paid to the founder.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
PIEDS runs NIDHI-EiR generally and as the Aarogyam track for digital healthcare. A fellowship supports the person while they build, rather than funding a company that may not exist yet.
MeitY TIDE 2.0
Grant schemeUp to Rs 7 lakh for early-stage startups.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
Entry-level ticket, useful before a company has anything to show.
Samvardhan
AcceleratorRs 10 lakh over six months, for healthcare hardware.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
One of the few PIEDS programmes with a stated duration.
Sustainability Accelerator
AcceleratorRs 10 lakh over six months, run with Susmafia.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
Climate and sustainability focus. Also six months.
Srishti
FellowshipHardware prototyping Entrepreneur-in-Residence, with grants, mentorship and lab access.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
Amount is not published.
Navonmesh Protsahan Spardha
CompetitionCompetition run with the Ministry of Skill Development to turn NSTI skills into startups.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
Aimed at skilled trades rather than graduates or researchers, which is unusual for a campus incubator.
Ideate Create
CompetitionIdea-stage programme, run separately on the Pilani and Mumbai campuses.
What you get, who can apply and how to applyHide details
Entry point for people who do not yet have a venture.
Incubation tracks
The routes into PIEDS, and what each one includes.
PIEDS leans on fellowships more than most incubators. NIDHI-EiR, Srishti and Genesis pay the founder rather than the company, which matters if you have not incorporated yet or cannot pay yourself while building. Residency is at the Rakesh Kapoor Innovation Center on the Pilani campus; fees, tenure and equity are not published anywhere on the site.
| Track | Type | Space | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resident incubation at RKICBased at the Rakesh Kapoor Innovation Center on the Pilani campus. PIEDS does not publish desk fees, tenure or equity terms. | Resident incubation | — | Co-working desks, Innovation labs, Meeting rooms |
| Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR)Several PIEDS schemes are EiR fellowships that pay the founder directly rather than the company — NIDHI-EiR, Srishti and Genesis all run this way. | Fellowship | — | — |
Labs & facilities
Equipment and space on campus.
The labs here are built for hardware and software, not biology: an IoT bench with microcontrollers and embedded platforms, a fabrication lab attached to the NIDHI PRAYAS grant, and a GPU-backed computer vision lab. That combination — prototype grant plus the fabrication lab to spend it in — is the most coherent thing PIEDS offers, and it is a genuine advantage for a hardware team that would otherwise be renting machine time.
Co-working Space Infrastructure
Innovation Labs
Meeting Rooms
Labs
Support services
Help offered alongside funding and space.
Recognitions & empanelments
Official approvals this incubator holds.
Read these as funding routes rather than honours. PIEDS holds an unusually wide slice of the NIDHI family (PRAYAS, EiR, Seed Support System and the Accelerator), which is why so many of its schemes are DST-badged. The SIDBI iDEX partnership is the outlier and the most valuable one: defence-tech is among the few places an Indian hardware startup can raise a large non-dilutive cheque.
PIEDS sorts its money by who you are, not what stage you are at
Most incubators run a ladder: idea grant, prototype grant, seed round. PIEDS runs something closer to a matrix, and the axis that matters is identity.
Restricted to BITS Pilani. The Smt. Rajkumari Jain Seed Fund (up to Rs 50 lakh) is for BITS Pilani founders. The Alumni Startup Seed Fund (Rs 5-10 lakh) is for BITSian alumni. Between them that is the single largest discretionary pot on the page, and a founder with no BITS connection cannot reach it.
Restricted by demographic or geography. Saksham (up to Rs 10 lakh) and Womenpreneur For Bharat (up to Rs 15 lakh) are for women-led startups. Genesis (up to Rs 10 lakh) is for founders from Tier II and Tier III cities. Navonmesh Protsahan Spardha, run with the Ministry of Skill Development, targets people coming out of NSTI skills training rather than degree programmes.
Open to anyone, set centrally. SISFS, the NIDHI family, TIDE 2.0 and SAMRIDH are national schemes PIEDS is approved to disburse. Their terms do not depend on PIEDS at all and can be verified independently.
The practical consequence: work out which bucket you fall into first. An unaffiliated male founder from a metro is eligible for a materially shorter list than the twenty-two programmes on display suggest.
How to approach PIEDS
Start with the labs if you build hardware. The pairing of a NIDHI PRAYAS prototype grant with a fabrication lab, an IoT bench and a GPU compute lab on the same campus is coherent in a way most equipment lists are not. If you need to build and iterate physical product, that is worth more than renting machine time.
Defence-tech has a clear route. The SIDBI iDEX partnership is one of the few paths to a large non-dilutive cheque for an Indian hardware startup, and comparatively few incubators are partners.
If you have not incorporated yet, look at the fellowships. NIDHI-EiR, Srishti and Genesis pay the founder rather than the company, which solves a problem most schemes ignore.
Work out your eligibility bucket first. PIEDS publishes amounts against most of its twenty-two funds but handles eligibility case by case. Several of the larger funds are tied to a BITS Pilani affiliation, and others are scoped to women founders or to founders from Tier II and Tier III cities. A short note to tbi@pieds-bitspilani.org describing your affiliation, stage and sector will narrow twenty-two options to the handful you can actually apply for, and is a faster route than working through them individually.
News
- IDFC FIRST Bank Launches Accelerator Programme With BITS Pilani For Climate And Health Startupsmotoring-trends.com · last week
- India's SIDBI-iDEX fund to back defence startups with up to ₹1.5 Croreapp.dealroom.co · last month
- TARAksh Lawyers and Consultants and PIEDS, BITS Pilani Collaborate to Support Technology Startupsbwlegalworld.com · 2 months ago
Source: Google News aggregated
About PIEDS
Pilani Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Society (PIEDS)
PIEDS is an autonomous, not-for-profit society registered in 2013 under The Rajasthan Societies Registration Act, housed within the Rakesh Kapoor Innovation Center (RKIC) at BITS Pilani. It serves as the Technology Business Incubator for one of India's most prestigious engineering institutions, with roots going back to BITS Pilani's first TBI established in 2004. PIEDS has incubated over 400 startups and maintains a network of more than 150 expert mentors.
Programs & Funding
- TIDE 2.0 (MeitY): Up to ₹7 lakh for AI, IoT, Blockchain, Robotics, AR/VR, and Fintech startups
- NIDHI Seed Support System: Up to ₹1 crore equity for promising incubatees
- NIDHI PRAYAS: Up to ₹10 lakh for hardware startups
- SAMRIDH Accelerator: Up to ₹40 lakh for AI/ML and IoT scale-ups
- SISFS: Up to ₹50 lakh seed funding
- SIDBI iDEX Seed Fund: Up to ₹1.5 crore for defence-tech startups
- Alumni Startup Seed Fund: ₹5–10 lakh for BITSian entrepreneurs
- Mookerji Innovation Fund: ₹5–50 lakh for BITSian co-founded startups
Specialist Accelerators cover healthcare hardware (Samvardhan), climate-tech (Susmafia Sustainability Accelerator), women-led startups (Womenpreneurs for Bharat, Saksham), generative AI (PIEDS × 1811 Labs), and digital health (Aarogyam Digital Healthcare Accelerator).
Who Should Apply
PIEDS is ideal for technology-first founders — especially BITS Pilani students, alumni, and researchers — building deep-tech products. External founders with strong technology differentiation are also eligible. The incubator's broad government scheme portfolio makes it particularly suitable for early-stage hardware and deeptech founders seeking non-dilutive funding alongside incubation support.
Get in touch
Send a message to PIEDS — we'll forward it on your behalf.
Who they work with
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Frequently asked questions about PIEDS
What is the full form of PIEDS?
PIEDS stands for Pilani Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Society.
What does PIEDS do?
Pilani Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Society (PIEDS) PIEDS is an autonomous, not-for-profit society registered in 2013 under The Rajasthan Societies Registration Act, housed within the Rakesh Kapoor Innovation Center (RKIC) at BITS Pilani.
Where is PIEDS located?
PIEDS is located at PIEDS, BITS Pilani, Vidya Vihar, Pilani, Rajasthan.
What programs does PIEDS run?
PIEDS currently has 3 open programmes: Patel Innovation Fund by PIEDS, IDFC FIRST Bank IGNITE Accelerator 2026 and PIEDS Womenpreneur for Bharat 4.0. 11 further programmes have run in the past.
What sectors does PIEDS support?
PIEDS works with startups in Deep Tech, AI/ML, IoT, Blockchain, HealthTech and CleanTech and other sectors.
What stage of startup does PIEDS support?
PIEDS supports startups at the Ideation, Validation and Early Revenue stages.
What facilities does PIEDS offer?
PIEDS offers Co-working Space Infrastructure, Innovation Labs, Meeting Rooms and Labs.
Is PIEDS government recognised?
PIEDS holds the following recognitions and affiliations: TIDE 2.0, NIDHI EIR, NIDHI SSS, NIDHI PRAYAS, SAMRIDH and Startup India Seed Fund.
How do I apply to PIEDS?
Applications run through each programme's own call. PIEDS lists 3 open programmes — check the programme page for its deadline and eligibility, or apply via https://pieds-bitspilani.org/.
When was PIEDS founded?
PIEDS was founded in 2013. It operates as an academic.
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