VentureLab Thapar (STEP-TIET)

Which of the three to go for

• The VentureLab Thapar Program is the general route. Go here if you want a coach, structured mentoring and introductions, and you are building in the Punjab region. It takes founders at any stage, including scale-ups.
• MeitY TIDE 2.0 is the route if you are building an information and communications technology product — artificial intelligence, blockchain, internet of things, electric mobility, smart infrastructure, clean tech or health tech. This is the scheme the incubator's own dashboard shows it actually disbursing against, so it is the best-evidenced of the three.
• The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme only fits if you already hold DPIIT recognition and incorporated within the last two years.

How applications work

Every programme page has an apply button, but none of them leads anywhere we could follow. Do not assume there is a portal. Write to the manager's inbox at manager_step@thapar.edu, use the query box on the contact page, or call the Patiala office, and ask for the current intake and what they want from you.

Ask two things in that first message: whether the programme you want is actually taking applications now, and how long it runs. Its pages give two different lengths for the main programme, so get that in writing before you commit.

What to have ready

• A clear statement of the problem, the product and where you have got to — the first step in their process is an assessment of both the founder and the idea.
• Where you and your team are based. The main programme states a Punjab-region gate, so say plainly how you connect to it.
• Your expansion plan. The programme page describes itself as being for entrepreneurs with expansion plans, so bring one rather than only an idea.
• Your incorporation and DPIIT status if you are aiming at the seed fund route, plus the date you incorporated.

How selection works

The incubator describes a five-step flow: assessment, business modelling, training and mentoring, market access, then funding access. A coach is assigned to each participant and the coach and founder work out the training needs together. Panels review progress each quarter, so expect to be measured against what you said you would do.

Worth knowing before you apply

• It is a registered society hosted by the institute, not a department of it, and you do not need to be a student or a member of staff.
• It has a Gurugram office as well as the Patiala campus one, which matters if you are in the Delhi region.
• Neither the incubator's pages nor the institute's say anything about taking equity or charging a fee for the programme, so ask.
• Its startups span agriculture technology, education technology, clean technology, health technology, mobility and infrastructure, which is wider than the five sectors its home page names.

VentureLab Thapar is the business incubator on the Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology campus at Patiala, Punjab. It started life in April 2005 as the Science & Technology Entrepreneur's Park (STEP), a joint venture between the Department of Science and Technology's National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board and the institute, and it still uses the STEP name in its own contact details. It runs today under the VentureLab Thapar name, with a second office in Gurugram, Haryana, and its pages also carry the Thapar Innovate name.

STEP-TIET is a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, governed by a body that includes representatives of the Department of Science and Technology alongside academics, technocrats and industrialists. So it is a separate body hosted by the institute rather than a department of it.

How the programmes work

Three programmes are open. The main one is the VentureLab Thapar Program, which the incubator describes as a structured engagement built around a personal coach, hands-on training, business advice and introductions to investors. It sets out five steps: assessment of the founder and the idea, business modelling, training and mentoring, market access, and funding access. Each participant gets a coach for the year, and there is expert coaching available for patents, legal questions and finances. Progress is reviewed quarterly by business panels.

The other two are routes into government schemes. MeitY TIDE 2.0 backs technology entrepreneurs working on information and communications technology, with stated focus areas in artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, the internet of things, electric mobility, smart infrastructure, clean technology and health technology. The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme covers proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialisation. The incubator's own dashboard records startups it has funded under TIDE 2.0, naming each company, its founder, its sector and its home state.

Note that the incubator's pages disagree on how long the VentureLab Thapar Program lasts. Its programme page calls it a one-year engagement; its home page describes three stages of ten weeks each. Ask before you plan around either.

Who can apply

The VentureLab Thapar Program is open to founders from outside the campus. Its page is explicit that it does not matter whether you are a student, a staff member, already running a startup or a scale-up, or someone who has been an entrepreneur for years. The gate it does state is regional: it is for entrepreneurs in the Punjab region with expansion plans. It says it supports founders individually or as a team, and also groups or departments inside an organisation. No incorporation requirement is stated.

The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme route carries the scheme's own national rules, which the incubator repeats: your startup must hold DPIIT recognition when you apply, must be no more than two years old from incorporation, must not already have taken more than a set amount of government support, and Indian promoters must hold at least fifty-one per cent of the shareholding. One thing to check directly with the incubator: its seed fund page sets out the national scheme rather than its own intake, so confirm the route is live before you count on it.

Facilities

The incubator offers shared co-working space, and describes flexible workplaces and meeting rooms as part of the programme. It also offers access to NVIDIA data centres for startups that need serious computing power, and names a centre of excellence on campus for work on emerging technologies.

Scale

Its analytics dashboard reports 118 startups incubated, 309 jobs created, and that fifteen per cent of its startups have a woman founder or co-founder. The dashboard's year filters run from 2020-21 to 2025-26. Its portfolio page gives a different count, describing sixteen or more portfolio companies, so treat the two as counting different things. A legacy institute page, last updated in 2017, gives an older figure of twenty-five companies incubated and seventy-six entrepreneurship development programmes run since the park opened.

Named portfolio companies include Minus Zero, Labellerr, Terafac Technologies, Wendor, Eternz, Foxo, Repeat Gud, Tiny Wires, Deradh, Roschcrete Technologies, Agpharm Bioinnovations, SoGrow, Project Studio, Kriya Fit, Bulksolids Innovation India and Pluto.

Who runs it

Prof. Aard Groen is named as Managing Director of VentureLab Thapar. On the institute's side, Dr. Karminderjit S. Ghumaan of the L. M. Thapar School of Management is Chief Coordinator of STEP and Dr. M.D. Singh of the Electrical & Instrumentation Engineering department is Co-coordinator. An investment committee is listed, drawn from Prath Ventures, Avattar Venture Partners, Modular Capital, Just Herbs, Innovation Mission Punjab and TrustEvals.ai. A mentor panel is also listed.

Locations

The Patiala office is on the Thapar campus on Bhadson Road, Adarsh Nagar, Prem Nagar. There is a second office in Gurugram at the Orchid Centre near the Rapid Metro Sector 54 station.

How to apply, careers and events

Each programme page carries an apply button, but none of them links anywhere in the page we could read, so the practical route in is the contact page's query form, the phone line, or writing to the manager's inbox. VentureLab Thapar runs a careers page that lists both its own openings and jobs at its startups, though it was empty when we checked, and an events page for workshops and networking sessions, also empty at the time. It publishes a newsletter.