TISS Incube Foundation

Choosing the right programme

• The Incubation Programme for Social Startups is the only programme listed on the centre's pages.
• It is built for social ventures, not commercial startups.

How applications work

• No application form or portal is published.
• Past calls were released as an "Incubation Call". The most recent dated call was released in July 2020.
• Ask TISS whether a call is open before you prepare an application.

How selection works

• Past intakes shortlisted candidates in the presence of internal and external experts at TISS.
• A selected venture receives 18 months of structured incubation support.

What to check first

• Confirm a current intake with TISS.
• Check that your venture is a social enterprise, since no eligibility criteria are published.

TISS Incube Foundation is the incubation centre at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai, set up to support social enterprises. The centre sits within TISS's Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, and its incubation programme gives selected ventures 18 months of structured support.

How programmes work

The centre's one listed programme is the Incubation Programme for Social Startups. It invites applications from innovators and entrepreneurs across the country and supports each venture for 18 months. The centre describes its purpose as supporting early-stage startups to build impactful venture models. Its 2020-21 annual report says the ventures are spread across the country and remain under structured incubation support for 18 months.

Past intakes ran as an "Incubation Call" and were followed by shortlisting with internal and external experts at TISS. The most recent dated call was released in July 2020. No current call, fees or equity terms are published.

Who can apply

The programme is open to innovators and entrepreneurs building social enterprises, from across India. Applicants do not need to be based in Mumbai, since the programme draws ventures from across the country. No eligibility criteria are published. The incubation pages on TISS's site say they will be updated soon, so check with TISS before planning an application.

Track record

The centre's counts are self-reported, and they do not agree. Its 2020-21 annual report says the centre has, over nine years, trained, mentored or given a head start to more than 55 social enterprises. A TISS announcement from March 2022 says the foundation has incubated more than 50 start-ups so far. The figures cover different periods, and neither is treated here as a headline total.

The same annual report records 65 innovators trained through two SIIP workshops that TISS conducted in 2020-21.

Partners and recognition

The centre describes itself as a National Knowledge Partner of the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) for its Social Innovation Immersion Programme (SIIP), run under the Department of Biotechnology. A 2022 announcement also names the centre as a knowledge partner to BIRAC for THINK-B, the incubation centre of the Bastar district administration in Chhattisgarh.

A March 2022 announcement says the 2020 SIIP cohort has concluded, so whether the knowledge-partner role is still active is not shown. The centre also spearheads the TISS Institutions Innovation Council.

Who runs it

The 2020-21 annual report describes the incubation centre as set up at the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at TISS, in 2012. A TISS announcement from 2022 says the incubation centre completed registration as TISS Incube Foundation, a Section 8 company under the Companies Act 2013. The annual report does not mention the foundation.

This page does not settle whether the foundation is a separate body or a unit of TISS, and it gives no founding year, because the 2012 and 2022 dates refer to different things. The 2012 date comes from the annual report and the 2022 date from the registration announcement.

What is not published

Its pages do not publish a current call, an application form, eligibility criteria, fees, equity terms, a facilities list, or named alumni startups. The page gives no count of current ventures, since none is published. Treat the programme as a route to ask about rather than a confirmed open intake.

Location

The centre's contact address is on the Malti and Jal A.D. Naoroji Campus of TISS, Deonar Farm Road, Deonar, Mumbai 400 088. The announcement footer gives the campus as V.N. Purav Marg, Deonar, Mumbai 400 088, so the postal code matches in both places. The contact block belongs to the incubation centre and is not a registered office for the foundation.