TBI@KEC - Technology Business Incubator, Kongu Engineering College

Before you apply

• Check fit first. The incubator's roots are in electronics, embedded systems and ICT, and it now lists wider technology areas. A product idea in one of those areas is the strongest case.
• Prepare a business plan. The incubator lists business plan, clarity of ideas, aptitude, qualification, experience and financial status as its entry criteria.
• Use the enrolment application linked from the website's page for aspiring incubatees, then write to tbi-kec@kongu.ac.in to confirm it was received.

Schemes

• The seed support scheme is for incubatees. Its page says the startup must be, or be willing to be, a resident incubatee, a private limited company in India or in registration, with at least 51% Indian promoter shareholding. The call shown on the site closed on 26.05.2024, so ask about the next one.
• The NIDHI Entrepreneur-in-Residence page shows a last date of 30.07.2023 and is for science or engineering graduates who pursue the venture full time.
• The EDII-TN Innovation Voucher Programme is for manufacturing MSMEs and startups registered and located in Tamil Nadu.

Before you rely on the site

The website's design and dates are old. Call +91-4294-226633 or write to the contact address to confirm the current intake.

TBI@KEC is the Technology Business Incubator of Kongu Engineering College in Perundurai, Erode district, Tamil Nadu. It is a joint venture of the college and the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and it won the National Award for Technology Business Incubator for 2012. It sits on the college campus and works with technology founders and existing small and medium enterprises.

Its stated aim is to nurture start-ups in emerging technology areas and to assist SMEs. The original thrust is electronics and ICT: embedded systems, digital signal processing, electronic card design, assembly, testing and repair, wireless embedded systems and multimedia. Its seed support pages now list advanced manufacturing, robotics, drones, agri and food tech, health and med tech, clean and green tech, IoT, AI and ML and AR/VR/MR as focus areas, and other technology areas can be considered on merit.

Incubatees get a modern air-conditioned workspace, common development centres for the five thrust technologies, a seminar hall, a conference and training hall, a library, computing facilities and on campus accommodation. The incubator describes its premises as a 24x7 facility. Services cover business planning, engineering and design, testing, prototyping, marketing and legal help, licences and clearances, IPR, post-incubation support and consultancy. Its current incubatee list names 29 companies across software, industrial automation, hardware and IoT, agriculture, energy, food tech and textiles, including Kaar Infotech, Dynattral Tech and MachDatum.

The incubator also hosts government schemes for its tenants and for Tamil Nadu MSMEs: a seed support scheme for incubatees, the NIDHI Entrepreneur-in-Residence fellowship and the EDII-TN Innovation Voucher Programme. Their pages carry old closing dates, so ask the incubator whether a call is open before you plan around one.

Selection to the incubator looks at your business plan, clarity of ideas, aptitude, educational qualification, experience and financial status. Applicants include aspirants with business acumen as well as entrepreneurs of small units with a specific product idea. Enrolment is through an application form linked from the incubator's website.