Incubator and accelerator programmes that come with funding

These are programmes that combine a cohort — mentoring, workspace, investor access — with actual money, either as a grant, a stipend or a small equity cheque. That is the distinction worth caring about: a large number of Indian incubators offer support and networking but no capital, and applying to them on the assumption that funding follows is a common way to lose a quarter.

Most of the programmes here are run by academic or government-backed incubators, so selection is usually cohort-based with fixed intake windows rather than rolling. Read the stage requirement before the amount: a prototype-stage programme will not take an idea on a slide deck, however good the idea is.