IoE has earmarked an amount of Rs. 10 Cr. to support Seed Funding for Incubation and Startup Activities channelized through Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE).

Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship(SINE) is the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) of IIT Bombay and is registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. SINE supports early-stage ventures by incubating and providing them with various supports. SINE, as an umbrella organization at IIT Bombay for fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing technology start-ups, has supported close to 1000 innovators and 200+ start-ups since its inception in 2004. It provides start-to-scale support to start-ups by way of providing physical infrastructure (office space and lab facility), mentoring support, facilitating access to seed and early-stage funding, connecting with corporate and industry experts and by providing access to service providers, among others. To develop and accelerate the conversion of research activity into entrepreneurial ventures, IIT Bombay intends to earmark a portion of its budget to support students and faculty in their entrepreneurial pursuits. This is also in line with the National Innovation and Startup Policy 2019 (NISP 2019) that call for higher educational institutions to actively engage with students, faculties and staff members in innovation and entrepreneurial activities, including through funding support. IIT Bombay has identified SINE, its technology business incubator, to facilitate the same under collaboration partnership mode. SINE has agreed to support students, faculty members and alumni of IIT Bombay who are keen to pursue entrepreneurship through its existing pre-incubation, incubation and acceleration programs and has submitted a proposal to IIT Bombay in this regard. IoE has supported this initiative and entered into an MoU by funding an amount of Rs. 10 Cr.

The MoU was between Prof. R Murugavel, PiC IoE and Prof. Santosh Gharpure, PiC SINE

Details of the innovator/start-up funding support program:

A. Innovation Grant

• This will cater to students who are at an idea-stage in their entrepreneurial pursuit and will enable them to take forward their work through grant support.
• Funding support in the range INR 6-9 lakhs will be made available to graduate and recently graduated students.
• The period of support would be between 12 to 18 months and SINE will provide pre-incubation support.

B. Seed Support: Translational Research Support (TRS) / Prototyping Stage

As a TBI housed in IIT Bombay, SINE has the wherewithal to facilitate creation of deep-tech ventures and conversion of cutting-edge research to commercial product/solutions.

• Support progression of translation research that has high potential for commercialization from TRL 3 to TRL 7
• The purpose of the support is to enable students to develop prototypes and accelerate their entrepreneurial journey. This will augment other funding support available for startups from government and CSR sources.
• Funding support to the extent of INR 30 lakhs will be provided.
• SINE will provide pre-incubation/incubation support including mentorship and ecosystem connect in the areas of business, market, and funding.

C. Seed Support: Scale-up Stage

• The purpose of the support is to accelerate product development and go-to-market for startups. This will augment other funding support available for startups from government and CSR sources.
• Funding support to the extent of INR 50 lakhs will be provided to ventures founded by IIT Bombay students or alumni.
• The startups supported under this category must be incubated at SINE

Additional funding support of up to INR 15 lakhs will be provided to women entrepreneurs/innovators who are either students or alumni of IIT Bombay under the categories (b) and (c) mentioned above.