Door one
Pre-seed
A brilliant idea, looking for a viable business model around an innovative product, service or platform, and for a way to make it scale.
PRTF Startup Hub
Ideas leave here as companies.
An incubator recognised by the Government of Uttar Pradesh, a founder track inside the PGDM, and a startup ecosystem of investors, founders, StartinUP and other startups, on one campus in Knowledge Park III. Eighteen ventures since 2022.
StartinUP · Government of Uttar PradeshSupported under UP IT & Startup Policy 2020
- Ventures incubated
- 18
- Incubating since
- June 2022
- Focus areas
- Health, agriculture,
environment, deeptech & AI - Recognition
- StartinUP · UP Startup Policy 2020
- Where it happens
- On campus · same building as your classes
Biomolecular Technology✦Ailmcure Research & Innovation✦Mediscience Research & Innovation✦PSG Technologies✦Bioprospecting Life Sciences✦Bioupgrade Technologies✦Saunidhi Infotech✦Insilico Healthcare✦Soilinfo & Solutions✦ROI Organic Hub✦Tech Vimal Corporation India✦Aparam Agrosmart Knowledge & Education✦Kirnova Biopower✦Vttvrdn Technologies✦Verdhara Agro✦Stubbio Solutions✦Celleome Diagnostics✦gramyuvaAI✦
What the hub is
Three parts. One campus.
PRTF Startup Hub is the umbrella: a founder track every PGDM student goes through, an incubator for the startups that come out of it, and the network around both.
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01 · For every student
The founder track
Terms I to III of the PGDM, then the summer. A problem in Term I, a working product in Term II, a company in Term III. Learn business by building one.
The track, term by term -
02 · For selected startups
The incubator
Pathfinder Foundation Innovation, on campus since 2022 and supported under the UP IT & Startup Policy 2020. Eighteen ventures so far.
The eighteen -
03 · Around both
The ecosystem
Investors, founders and other startups, government schemes such as StartinUP, mentors from different domains, and a campus where all of it happens.
The ecosystem
If you study here
Learn business by building one.
The founder track runs through the first year of the PGDM, and the hub is where it leads. Nobody watches from the outside.
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Year 1 · Terms I–III
The founder track
A problem in Term I, a working product in Term II, a company in Term III, with eight weeks of mentorship to start and a panel of experienced leaders at the end. It is part of the PGDM, and the PGDM page has it term by term.
Graduate as a founder: the track in detail -
Summer · Two options
Keep building, or learn inside a company
Continue the venture you formalised in Year 1, here at the hub. Or take a 4–5 week paid internship with an existing startup or company.
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Incubation · Selected startups
The same support the ventures get
Startups chosen by the panel enter six months of formal incubation, extendable to a year on a performance review: the same mentors, workspace and support as the eighteen, and help preparing for fundraising and accelerator programmes.
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Year 2 · The venture continues
A company is a legitimate outcome
An incubated venture carries on through the second year and can be your final project. Founding something counts as a career outcome here rather than a detour from one.
The incubator
Mentors, workspace and investors, on the same campus.
Pathfinder Foundation Innovation is a startup incubator established at PRTF and supported under the UP IT & Startup Policy 2020. It backs research-led ventures in human health, agriculture and the environment: new tools, databases and applications with commercial potential.
- 01
Support and promote research, innovation and entrepreneurship, with the infrastructure for incubated startups to do it.
- 02
Turn innovative ideas into minimally viable startup businesses.
- 03
Collaborate with industry, investors, government, academia and other incubators for knowledge sharing, co-incubation and technology transfer.
The portfolio
Eighteen companies that started here.
Every one of them approved, incorporated and working. Filter by what they work on.
- 01Biomolecular TechnologyHealth & life sciences
Jun 2022 - 02Ailmcure Research & InnovationHealth & life sciences
Jun 2022 - 03Mediscience Research & InnovationHealth & life sciences
Jul 2022 - 04PSG TechnologiesTechnology
Jul 2022 - 05Bioprospecting Life SciencesHealth & life sciences
Jul 2022 - 06Bioupgrade TechnologiesHealth & life sciences
Jul 2022 - 07Saunidhi InfotechTechnology
Sep 2022 - 08Insilico HealthcareHealth & life sciences
Oct 2022 - 09Soilinfo & SolutionsAgriculture & food
Nov 2022 - 10ROI Organic HubAgriculture & food
Apr 2023 - 11Tech Vimal Corporation IndiaTechnology
Jun 2023 - 12Aparam Agrosmart Knowledge & EducationAgriculture & food
Feb 2025 - 13Kirnova BiopowerEnvironment & energy
Mar 2025 - 14Vttvrdn TechnologiesTechnology
Jun 2025 - 15Verdhara AgroAgriculture & food
Jul 2025 - 16Stubbio SolutionsEnvironment & energy
Aug 2025 - 17Celleome DiagnosticsHealth & life sciences
Oct 2025 - 18gramyuvaAIAgriculture & food
Sep 2026
No ventures in this area yet.
Ventures incubated, cumulative
Nine in the first six months, and eighteen by September 2026.
What a founder gets
A bench, a desk, a lawyer, a cheque and a network.
Ten kinds of support, for incubated ventures and for the student startups the panel selects. The rule above each group starts as a sketch and ends solid, which is roughly what happens to the idea.
Space & kit
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Co-working spaceDesks on campus, shared with the people solving the same problems.
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Digital infrastructureThe compute and tooling a software or data venture needs from day one.
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Wet lab facilitationBench space for ventures whose product has to be grown, assayed or tested.
Expertise
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A dedicated incubation teamOutreach, onboarding, events, workshops and the day-to-day running of the centre.
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Mentorship sessionsDomain experts who pressure-test the science, the market and the plan.
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Legal & marketing supportCompany formalities and compliance, and help taking the thing to market.
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Intellectual property rightsProtecting what you have invented before you show it to anyone.
Money & reach
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Financial assistanceSeed support for ventures that clear the panel.
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Exhibitions & investor meetingsBeing told where to show up, and being introduced when you get there.
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The networkInvestors, founders and other startups in and around the hub, and introductions to them.
The bench
The people who pressure-test your idea.
Mentors from IIIT-Delhi, JNU, ICGEB and Sharda University, plus a chartered accountant and a High Court lawyer, because a venture fails on its accounts and its paperwork as easily as on its science.
Bioinformatics & computational biology
Dr GPS Raghava
Professor, IIIT-Delhi
Immunology
Dr Ravi Tandon
Assistant Professor, JNU
Structural biology
Dr Neel Sarovar Bhavesh
Principal Scientist, ICGEB
Agroecology
Dr Usha Mina
Professor, JNU
Biostatistics & data analysis
Dr Manoj Kumar
Assistant Professor, JNU
Nanotechnology
Dr Jaydeep Bhattacharya
Assistant Professor, JNU
Biotechnology
Dr Saurabh Kumar Jha
Assistant Professor, Sharda University
Finance
Tarun Maheshwari
Chartered Accountant
Law
Dr Vijay Kumar
Lawyer, Allahabad High Court
- … and moreSpecialists are brought in as a venture needs them, from the wider PRTF faculty and advisory network → Board of AdvisorsResearch & industry leaders →
And the team that runs the centre
- Uma Shankar SinghIncubation Manager
- Devender SinghTechnical maintenance
- Vikas KumarSupport
The ecosystem
What a startup needs besides a desk.
A venture grows on the people and institutions around it. The hub puts six of them within reach of every incubated venture and every student startup the panel selects.
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Investors and VCs
Venture capital and angel investors in the hub’s network. Investor meetings and introductions for ventures that are ready for them, and help preparing for them before that.
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StartinUP and government schemes
State recognition under the UP IT & Startup Policy 2020, and the grants, incentives and initiatives that come with it, worked through with the incubation team.
The recognition -
Founders
People who have built companies, from the eighteen and from outside the campus: in the Term I founders’ sessions, in mentoring, and across the table at pitch sessions.
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Other startups
Eighteen incubated ventures on campus and the student startups coming up behind them, sharing desks, suppliers and lessons with the people solving the same problems.
The eighteen -
Networking
Exhibitions, demo days, workshops and events where the hub’s ventures meet investors, industry and each other, and introductions when they get there.
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Mentors across domains
Science, agriculture, finance, law and technology: the bench that pressure-tests an idea on its market, its numbers and its paperwork, not only its science.
The bench
How you get in
Two doors, and what the panel looks for.
PGDM students enter through the founder track. Everyone else applies here: Pathfinder Foundation Innovation takes seed and pre-seed ventures from ideation through to a working prototype.
Door two
Seed
A minimum viable product and a business plan already in hand. Ready for market research, a larger team and a prototype to build the business on.
What the panel weighs
A panel of experts reviews every applicant and interviews the promoters before a venture is taken on.
- The ideaInnovative content
- The marketMarket availability
- The marketGrowth prospects
- The technologyIts potential value
- The businessThe business idea itself
- The peopleThe promoter team
Recognition
Recognised by the Government of Uttar Pradesh.
Pathfinder Foundation Innovation is supported under the UP IT & Startup Policy 2020, the state's StartinUP programme. For a founder that means state-recognised incubation, and access to the incentives the policy carries.
UP IT & Startup Policy 2020
Incubate with us
Bring us an idea.
Whether it is a sentence on the back of a page or a working prototype, the incubation team will tell you honestly which door you are at.