NITJ Technology Business Incubator

Which route to use

There are two doors and they are not the same. Incubation admission is a rolling application straight to the incubator, with no deadline and no cohort dates. Seed funding runs through the national Startup India Seed Fund Scheme instead, and only when the incubator has an open round; the two rounds it has published both closed in 2023. If you want money rather than space, write to tbi@nitj.ac.in and ask whether a round is open before you build an application around it.

Before you apply

• Have a proof of concept that works. The incubator is explicit that its programme is for startups that have already established one, together with market research and a business plan. An idea on its own is the one thing it does not take.
• Be a company, or be ready to become one. Applications have to be in the name of a registered unlisted company. Founders can apply in their own names, but you then have to incorporate within three months of approval, so plan for it.
• Make the hardware case if you have one. The incubator says it is technology agnostic but prefers core engineering startups doing tangible product development, and its own list of companies is heavily weighted to devices, electronics, materials and energy. A physical product with a clear engineering problem in it reads well here.
• Work out which eligibility parameter you meet. Five are listed, and three of them turn on the institute's intellectual property or people. If you have no NIT Jalandhar link, your case rests on social and strategic impact, or on potential for large resource generation and impact, so say plainly which one you are claiming and why.

How the application works

You submit an application first. It gets an initial screening and an eligibility check, and if it passes you are invited to meet the incubator's management. Only after that do you submit the full proposal, so the first step is short and there is no reason to delay it while you polish a deck.

The full proposal is a business plan plus your technology and intellectual property detail. The plan is expected to cover the company itself, the value proposition, products and services, market and competition analysis, the revenue model, milestones and timelines, the development and marketing plan, the organisational structure, the core team, a risk analysis, what funding you need, and projected financials. If the technology came out of the institute, get the institute's approval letter for its transfer or licence to your company before you file, because the proposal is expected to include it.

How selection works

The incubator's team screens your business plan for whether it is worth a full evaluation. If it is, outside expert members do technical and financial due diligence, and who they are depends on what you are building. You may be asked to present to them, to send more information, or to revise and resubmit. The decision is the incubator's alone and it does not have to explain a rejection.

What reviewers look for

The criteria the incubator publishes are worth answering directly in the plan:

• How strong the product idea is on technology content, innovation, timing and market potential
• What intellectual property you have already created, and how much more the idea could generate
• How strong the core team is
• How much money you need, and how realistically you can raise it
• How long to market, and how long to break even

Time to market and break-even period are both on that list, so put dates against them rather than leaving them implied.

What to expect if you get in

Plan for 18 months to start, reviewed twice at six months each to a maximum of 30, with any further stay charged at market rates. There is a monthly charge for the space, and the incubator takes equity or a revenue share or both, at a level its policy document sets out as a range. You will report quarterly in a prescribed format, may be assessed annually, and will need the incubator's agreement before changing the company's name, business, directors, promoters or shareholding, or your founding team.

If you cannot move to Jalandhar, ask about virtual incubation. It is a standing option with an annual registration fee, and the incubator says virtual incubatees get the same support as those on site. If you do want lab time, ask early and in writing what it costs: laboratory access is to the institute's departments, not the incubator's own equipment, and it needs the department's permission, a separate agreement and a commercial fee.

NITJ Technology Business Incubator is the incubator on the campus of Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar, in Jalandhar, Punjab. It is a separate legal body from the institute: a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, with its own Board of Governors, set up with support from the Department of Science and Technology on the recommendation of that department's National Expert Advisory Committee. The institute is its host.

Founders with no connection to NIT Jalandhar can apply. The admission policy lists five classes of applicant and the fifth is simply Others, which is unqualified. The incubator describes itself as technology agnostic, and the Department of Science and Technology's own list of incubators records its thrust area as sector agnostic. In practice it says it prefers core engineering startups working on tangible product development, and the companies it names bear that out: safety products, dental and patient-handling devices, a milk antibiotic test strip, radio-frequency components, solar thermal energy, pervious concrete, assistive technology for autism and several education platforms.

How incubation works

This is not an ideation programme. The incubation offer is aimed at startups that have already established a proof of concept and done market research and a business plan; what the incubator adds is the push from there to a finished product and a sale. You submit an application, and if it passes an initial screening and eligibility check you are invited to meet the incubator's management. If that goes well you submit a full proposal: a business plan covering the company, its value proposition, products and services, market and competition, revenue model, milestones, development and marketing plan, team, risks, funding needs and projected financials, plus details of the technology and any intellectual property behind it. Where the intellectual property was developed at the institute you also need the institute's letter approving its transfer or licence to your company.

The incubator's team screens the plan, then outside expert members chosen to suit the proposal carry out technical and financial due diligence, and may ask you to present or to revise. The published criteria are the strength of the product idea, intellectual property created and the potential to create more, the strength of the core team, funding needs and how realistically you can raise them, time to market and break-even period. Admission is at the incubator's sole discretion and it does not have to give a reason for a rejection.

Residency runs 18 months to start with, extendable by two further six-month reviews to 30 months, with a possible further year after that at prevailing market rates. A monthly charge applies throughout. In return for its support the incubator takes equity, a revenue share, or both, in an indicative range set out in its policy document. Incubatees report quarterly in a set format, may be assessed annually, and need the incubator's agreement before changing the company's name, business, directors, promoters or shareholding.

Who can apply

Admission is open to faculty and staff of the institute, current and retired; its students, research scholars and current project staff; its alumni; universities and institutions with a research collaboration with it; and Others. A proposal also has to meet at least one of five parameters: intellectual property created at the institute and transferred to your company; intellectual property belonging to its faculty, staff, students or alumni but created elsewhere; scope for real involvement or interaction with its faculty, with or without use of its facilities; social and strategic impact; or potential for large resource generation or impact. The last two of those need no institute link at all, so an unconnected founder has a route in, though three of the five parameters do turn on institute people or institute research.

Applications must be in the name of a registered unlisted company. If you have not incorporated yet, the founders can apply in their own names, but the company has to be registered within three months of the application being approved.

Facilities

Each incubatee company gets office space, an internet connection and a computer where one is available, charged monthly by the number of workstations. Shared across the incubator are 3D printing and laser printing, a photocopier and scanner, teleconferencing, a meeting and conference room with projection equipment, a library, a pantry and recreational space, and secretarial help when staff allow.

Laboratory access is to the host institute's departments rather than to equipment the incubator owns. It is arranged through the institute's Dean of Research and Consultancy, needs the relevant department's permission so it does not clash with teaching and research, is charged on a commercial basis, and runs under a separate agreement and the institute's own rules. Campus accommodation may also be available to an incubatee on payment, at the institute's rates, subject to space.

Founders who cannot be on campus are not shut out. The incubator runs virtual incubation for an annual registration fee and says virtual incubatees get all the support physically located ones do.

Services

Alongside space, the incubator helps with company registration and filings, accounting, human resources and legal work, and copyright, trade mark and patent filings. It offers seed funding support and help applying for government agency funding, and introduces incubatees to venture capitalists, angels and other investors, and to the institute's alumni for mentorship, technical expertise and market access. Mentoring comes from startup domain experts, including founders and chief executives. Through a scheme it calls Internships Connect, incubated startups can hire institute students as interns for technical work on live projects.

Scale

The incubator's own pages give three different and undated counts on one page: space allotted to 18 startups, 7 startups graduated, and around 21 companies named as incubated. It also says two of its startups were acquired, without naming the buyer. None is a cumulative total and none carries a date, so treat them as self-reported figures rather than a track record.

Who runs it

The incubator has its own Board of Governors, chaired ex officio by the Director of NIT Jalandhar, with the institute's Dean of Research and Consultancy as vice-chairman. It also seats two associate deans, a professor from the institute's humanities department, the Joint Director of the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology, the Principal Director of CIHT, a Jalandhar forging-industry director, and the branch manager of the campus State Bank of India branch ex officio. A chief executive officer runs the incubator day to day. The published board list is undated, so the names may have moved on.

It is a PINE member of Innovation Mission Punjab and has formal collaborations with FIED at IIM Kashipur and with IRMA on social entrepreneurship, and has worked with NABARD in Jalandhar and Amritsar on women's training.

Where it is and how to apply

The incubator is on the second floor of the New Workshop Building on the NIT Jalandhar campus, Jalandhar, Punjab 144011. There is no online application form. To start an incubation application, or to ask whether a seed funding round is open, write to tbi@nitj.ac.in or use the contact form on the incubator's site. The incubator has no separate careers page and no events calendar.