WEscalate
A programme by Startup Karnataka
The women-founder track, run as six months of incubation followed by six months of acceleration through incubators the department selects.
At a glance
| Best for | Women-led startups in Karnataka, from early stage through scale-up |
|---|---|
| Stage | Idea – Growth |
| Duration | 6 months incubation, then 6 months acceleration |
| Format | Hybrid |
| Grant support | For selected startups. A place in the programme does not by itself guarantee a grant. |
About WEscalate
WEscalate supports 30 women-led startups a year in two cohorts of 15, each cohort sector-specific, delivered by incubators and accelerators the department maps and selects for the region. The focus sectors are biotech, agritech, medtech and healthtech, and cleantech. The department funds the delivery partner rather than paying founders directly, so you join through the incubator running your cohort.
What you get
- Six months of incubation: business skills training, mentoring, peer learning, market and customer analysis, business plan development, pitch preparation and investor connects, in a hybrid format with personalised mentoring
- Six months of acceleration for the startups that graduate, focused on market validation, enabling funding and market access
- A deployment grant shared equally by the top three performers, to put their product or service on the ground
Who can apply
- Early-stage women-led startups, for the incubation half
- Existing growth and scale-up stage startups may apply directly to the acceleration half if the incubator cannot fill all 15 places from the incubation cohort
How selection works: the department decides follow-on funding for the acceleration stage based on how the startups performed during incubation. Incubators and accelerators are chosen on their ability to run region-specific programmes.
How to apply: the department's page does not publish a founder application form or dates. Ask the Karnataka Startup Cell at startupcell@karnataka.gov.in which incubator is running the current cohort.
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.
- 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.
- New Age Innovation Network 2.0 (NAIN 2.0)Incubation centres inside colleges outside Bengaluru Urban District, funding student projects through the host institution.
- 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.