Vardhaman College of Engineering

Choosing the right route

• If you have an idea but no company yet, start with the Innovation Idea or Concept Document, which is open to students and innovators.
• If you already have a company, apply for incubation. Your company must be incorporated under the Companies Act before the application is considered.
• If you are a student founder, check that you do not hold an executive position in the company, because that rules out incubation.

How applications work

• Incubation applications need a business plan, the certificate of incorporation and the Memorandum and Articles of Association.
• The business plan should cover the company overview, the concept, the market opportunity, the competition, the development plan and milestones, the marketing plan, the management structure, the financials, the risks and how you will reduce them, and an appendix.
• Questions can go to cie@vardhaman.org.

How selection works

• The first review looks at your executive summary or business plan.
• If the first review is positive, the founders present a slide deck to the evaluation committee and answer questions. A video presentation is also accepted.

What reviewers look for

• A product idea with real technology content, innovation and market potential.
• A core team with a clear profile.
• Intellectual property the company has generated, or the potential to create it.
• Realistic five-year financial projections, with a clear time to market and break-even period.
• Demand and commercial potential in India, and room to scale.

The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) is the startup hub of Vardhaman College of Engineering, an autonomous engineering college on the Kacharam campus in Shamshabad, on the edge of Hyderabad. The college's own pages describe CIE as the institutional hub for academic innovation, research translation and startup incubation. Students, innovators and early-stage founders can start with an idea document, and companies that are ready to build can apply to be incubated.

How the programmes work

Support runs in stages. An idea begins as an Innovation Idea or Concept Document that sets out the proposed solution, its objectives, the technology it needs, a development timeline and a budget plan. Selected proposals are then guided through mentoring and prototype development, and IP protection is supported for work that comes out of research and product development.

Entrepreneurs who want to build a company apply for incubation with a business plan and an incubation application. Shortlisted founders then present to an evaluation committee, which looks at the strength of the idea, its technology, innovation, timeliness and market potential, along with the founding team, the IP it can generate, its financial projections, time to market, break-even period and scalability.

Who can apply

Pre-incubation is open to students, innovators, startups and technologists with an idea that addresses a real-world challenge. Incubation is open to companies rather than individuals. An applicant must first incorporate a private or public limited company under the Companies Act, and the application must include the certificate of incorporation and the company's Memorandum and Articles of Association.

Companies promoted by full-time degree students are eligible if the student does not hold an executive position and is not actively engaged with the company beyond what the institute permits. Companies promoted by regular staff need a no-objection certificate from their employer. Companies that run, or plan to run, educational courses or training programmes are not eligible. Virtual incubates can operate from anywhere in India.

Facilities

CIE works from a glass-fronted building on campus. Its ground floor holds the AICTE IDEA Lab and a Maker's Space, where students prototype with a laser cutter, 3D printers, a metal lathe and soldering stations for electronics and IoT work. The first floor houses the pre-incubation unit, with mentoring spaces for idea validation. The second floor, called the Startup House, holds startup offices, co-working space and a conference and pitching hall.

Selected companies are offered office space, a rented computer or two, a printer, broadband internet and meeting rooms, as well as access to shared equipment and the college library. CIE can also connect incubatees with institute laboratories and faculty, and it can arrange interns from the college's M.Tech, B.Tech and MBA programmes.

Mentoring and review

Each incubated company takes a faculty advisor for technology questions. The CIE Head meets company founders at least once a month for strategy reviews, and specialist mentors can be added for particular needs. Every company can also choose an industry mentor within six months of joining. Mentors are given equity: the company must offer its faculty mentor at least one per cent of share equity, and the same minimum applies to an industry mentor.

A committee reviews each incubatee every three months against the milestones in its business plan. Companies stay for up to two years, and can request up to two extensions of six months each, which the institute grants at its discretion.

Seed funding

CIE can provide a seed loan to registered companies in incubation, after three months of incubation. A seed loan depends on available funds or schemes, and admission to CIE does not guarantee one. Preference goes to companies that already have some revenue or customer orders, and CIE decides each application and does not have to give reasons for a refusal. Money is released in stages, once the CIE Head is satisfied with progress. Repayment terms are set by the seed fund guidelines, and the college's policy gives two options that are linked to the State Bank of India's prime lending rate.

Startups and recognition

CIE's pages say several startups from the campus ecosystem have been recognised under the Startup India initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. The college's V-Hub portal names startups that have been incubated, including Rejolt EdTech, Yayin AI Lab and Vra. The pages give different totals for how many startups CIE has incubated, so this page does not state one.

Who runs it

CIE is led by a Dean and has an Incubation Manager and an R&D Coordinator on its administrative and operational board. Faculty coordinators from several engineering departments support its programmes. An advisory board of industry experts, investors and alumni entrepreneurs gives guidance, and the student Entrepreneurship Cell feeds ideas into the incubator.

Locations

The campus is at Kacharam, Shamshabad, Ranga Reddy District, Hyderabad, Telangana, with the postal code 501218. Incubation is run through the VEC Centre for Research and Innovation Foundation, a Section 8 company that the college registered in 2023. The incubation centre itself was set up in 2018 under the name V-Hub.