New Age Innovation Network 2.0 (NAIN 2.0)
A programme by Startup Karnataka
Incubation centres inside colleges outside Bengaluru Urban District, funding student projects through the host institution.
At a glance
| Best for | Students at technology institutions outside Bengaluru Urban District |
|---|---|
| Stage | Idea – Prototype |
| Duration | Three years per centre |
About New Age Innovation Network 2.0 (NAIN 2.0)
NAIN 2.0 puts the ecosystem inside educational institutions rather than asking students to come to it. Students are encouraged to find local problems and solve them with frugal, technology-based working prototypes, with mentors assigned to help them build a business model. This is not a route an outside founder applies to — you reach it through a participating institution.
What you get
- Funding support per selected student project, for a limited number of projects a year, over three years
- An incubator established at your institution
- Mentoring, and a mapped anchor incubator or accelerator that hands your centre through implementation and industry connects
Who can apply
- Students at technology institutions of higher learning located outside Bengaluru Urban District
- Under the Karnataka Startup Policy 2025-30, 50 new centres are to be set up, prioritising the state's government engineering colleges — 35 for IT and electronics and 15 for biotechnology
How to apply: through your institution's NAIN centre. The department's page does not publish a direct student application route.
Where to apply
Other Startup Karnataka programmes
- ELEVATE (Idea2PoC Grant-in-Aid Scheme)Karnataka's main grant-in-aid call for startups incorporated in the state, taking an idea to proof of concept and then to scale.
- ELEVATE NxTThe deep-tech grant-in-aid track under LEAP, open to startups anywhere in India that move their registered office to Karnataka if they win.
- Rajiv Gandhi Entrepreneurship Program (RGEP)A twelve-month subsistence grant for individual innovators in Karnataka taking an idea to a prototype or proof of concept.
- WEscalateThe women-founder track, run as six months of incubation followed by six months of acceleration through incubators the department selects.
- Preferential Market Access (PMA)An empanelment route that puts Karnataka startups on a pre-qualified list state departments and public sector units buy from.
- Grassroot Innovation ProgrammeSupport for farmers, artisans, labourers and technicians in Karnataka to perfect and commercialise a practical innovation.
- Startup Policy Incentives 2025-30Reimbursement claims open to any startup registered with KITS — state GST, patent filing costs and other incentives under the 2025-30 policy.
- Local Economy Accelerator Program (LEAP)The umbrella state programme funding 16 components across six clusters outside Bengaluru — not something you apply to directly.
- Booster KitA directory of empanelled service partners offering registered Karnataka startups legal, staffing, investor-readiness and company-management help.
- Beyond Bengaluru Cluster Seed FundAn announced fund for early-stage startups outside Bengaluru Urban District; the department has not published an application route for it.
- Fund of FundsAn equity fund the department says it will set up for long-gestation innovation, weighted towards clusters outside Bengaluru; no application route published.