StartinUP

Start with recognition

• Check that your company is incorporated in Uttar Pradesh and registered with the Government of India under the Startup India Program.
• Recognition under the UP Startup Policy 2020 is the first step. Incubation and state incentives depend on it.

Choosing incubators

• Pick at least 3 incubators on the portal when you apply for incubation.
• Only one incubator gives incubation support at a time, so choose the ones whose programmes fit your sector and stage.

Getting a mentor

• Once registered, request a mentor from your own incubator or from the portal's list of mentors.
• You can connect with more than one mentor, depending on their availability.

Before you rely on the figures

• The old and new sites give different startup counts. Check the current figure on the UP Startup Mission site before you quote it.
• Confirm incentive amounts and conditions against the current policy documents before you apply.

StartinUP is the startup portal of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, run by the Department of IT & Electronics with UP Electronics Corporation Limited (UPLC) as nodal agency, from Lucknow. It works under the UP Startup Policy 2020 to recognise startups and incubators, and it connects recognised startups to incubators, mentors and state incentives.

The portal is moving to the UP Startup Mission website, and the old site says so in its banner. Treat the new site as the successor for current recognition, incubator and mentor information.

How the programmes work

A startup first gets recognised under the UP Startup Policy 2020. Once recognised, it applies to incubators on the portal and picks at least 3 of them. One incubator accepts and gives incubation support, and the other applications are withdrawn. Mentors can be requested from the same portal, and state incentives are listed under the startup funding section.

Who can apply

The policy is for startups, not for individual founders. A startup must be incorporated in Uttar Pradesh and registered with the Government of India under the Startup India Program. Startups outside the state are not covered by this policy.

Incubators on the recognised list are host institutions, such as the university-hosted incubators at Amity University and Banaras Hindu University.

What a recognised incubator must have

To be recognised, a host incubator must meet space and team conditions set by the policy. These include a dedicated incubation manager along with 2 other team members, co-working space of at least 100 sq. ft. per seat, meeting rooms for client meetings, a conference room for small events and mentoring classes, and a refreshment zone. Recognised incubators also provide digital input against key performance indicators set by the nodal agency.

Scale

The pages give different counts, so treat them as indicative. The older home page shows 2369 StartInUP recognised startups, while the new mission site shows 3940 startups registered on the portal. Both show 88 recognised incubators and 7 Centres of Excellence. The mission site also shows 75 districts covered and 30 mentors. The pages do not date these figures.

Who runs it

The Department of IT & Electronics, Government of Uttar Pradesh, runs the programme. UPLC is the nodal agency and manages the content. The Innovation Hub, facilitated by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, is described as the state hub for incubators and centres of excellence.

Locations

The office is at Navchetna Kendra, 10 Ashok Marg, Lucknow. The recognised incubators are spread across the state, and the mission site says the ecosystem covers 75 districts.