Silicon Institute of Technology

Choosing the right route

• A founder with a product idea or an early venture should look at the Business Incubator.
• Students and aspiring entrepreneurs should start with the Entrepreneurship Development Cell's camps, expert talks and workshops.

How to get in touch

• Write to the Entrepreneurship Development Cell at edcell@silicon.ac.in, or to the institute at info@silicon.ac.in.
• The pages read do not describe an application form or intake dates, so ask directly what the next intake looks like.

What the incubator looks for

• Ideas driven by passion, visible opportunity and early revenue.
• A willingness to put in hard work to take the venture forward.

Switchtech Incubator Foundation is the Section 8 company that manages the Business Incubator of Silicon University, formerly Silicon Institute of Technology, in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The institute incorporated the foundation in 2021 to run all of the incubator's activities. The incubator was first set up in 2009 as the Innovation and Incubation Center.

How the incubator works

The Business Incubator helps entrepreneurs identify and develop business ideas, products or services, and supports them to raise early-stage seed and pre-Series A funding. Its listed benefits include idea generation and training, support for proof of concepts, help with product development and testing in on-campus labs, support for fine-tuning business and revenue models, mentorship from entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts, linkages with venture funds, angel investors and high-net-worth individuals, and help to find and engage anchor customers.

The incubator also runs investor meets, where startups pitch to angel and pre-Series A investors, and it helps founders prepare their pitch decks beforehand. Its thrust areas are listed as IoT, information and communication technologies, data science, electronics, embedded systems and VLSI. The incubator says it does not favour any one domain or sector.

Who can apply

The incubator says it supports budding entrepreneurs without being partial to any particular domain or sector. It encourages ideas driven by passion, visible opportunity, early revenue and a willingness to do the hard work. The pages read do not set out an application form, an intake calendar or selection criteria, so founders should contact the Entrepreneurship Development Cell to ask how to begin.

Separately, the Entrepreneurship Development Cell runs awareness camps, expert talks and workshops. These are open to entrepreneurs aged 16 to 35 from a science and technology background, as well as to Silicon students. The cell also lists a Technology Entrepreneurship Development Program for entrepreneurs in a specific technology area, and a Women Entrepreneurship Development Program.

Facilities

The incubator has three incubation spaces. The on-campus facility covers 10,000 square feet. Two off-campus incubation spaces are in Bhubaneswar, at DLF Cybercity Tower and at iHub, Infocity. Startups can also use the institute's on-campus labs for product development and testing.

Scale

The incubator's pages say it has incubated 14 startups, while the list of incubatees on the same site names 13 companies. Its self-reported figures also include 906 people employed by incubatees and 19 businesses started through the Entrepreneurship Development Cell. These figures come from the institute and have not been checked independently.

Recognition

Startup Odisha recognised the foundation as an incubator in 2022. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises approved the incubator as a Business Incubator in 2015, under its scheme for entrepreneurial and managerial development of MSMEs through incubators. The pages do not settle which entity holds the Startup Odisha recognition. The incubator page names the foundation, and the institute's timeline names the institute.

Who runs it

The Entrepreneurship Development Cell is the advisory and coordination department for entrepreneurship on campus. It anchors the work of the Business Incubator and of the Institution Innovation Council. Its advisory board includes representatives of the Ministry of MSME, the District Industries Centre in Bhubaneswar, SIDBI, NABARD and EDII.

Locations

The campus is at Silicon Hills, Patia, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 751024. The off-campus incubation spaces are in Bhubaneswar at DLF Cybercity Tower and iHub, Infocity.