STPI Centres of Entrepreneurship (CoE) network

A Centre of Entrepreneurship is a domain-specific incubation facility for startups in one emerging technology area, where STPI brings together infrastructure, labs, mentoring, training, research, funding and networking for that domain. The Government of India announced the setting up of CoEs by STPI in specific domains across the country, and they cover areas including IoT, blockchain, fintech, AI, AR/VR, ESDM, data science and analytics, medical electronics and healthcare, gaming and animation, machine learning and cyber security. STPI's own pages give three different counts of how many CoEs have launched, so we do not state a number.

Each CoE is built as a collaboration between government — MeitY, STPI and a state government — industry domain, technology and knowledge partners, academic and mentoring partners, and investors.

What you get

• Incubation space at the CoE, with access to its labs and equipment
• Mentoring across the product development lifecycle, from academia and industry
• Funding routes and an interface with angel investors and venture funds
• IPR facilitation, industry connect, networking and marketing support
• Access to the wider STPI lab network

Who can apply

• Technology startups working in that CoE's domain. Each centre sets its own criteria in its own call, so there is no single network-level eligibility list

How selection works: STPI describes a lifecycle — awareness about the CoE, acceptance of proposals, selection against pre-defined criteria, mentorship from academia and industry, evaluation of the proof of concept, product development, then market connect and introductions to angel investors and venture funds.

How to apply: through the individual CoE's own open challenge programme or call for proposals. These are published on SAYUJ, so register there and watch the centre you are interested in.