Nexus Business Incubator Program in India 2024

Have an idea and need help getting it to market? Join the Nexus business incubator!

Applications are open for the Nexus Business Incubator Program – India 2024. Located in downtown New Delhi, the incubator will offer selected startups unparalleled access to networks of industry and government partners, training with the top commercialization experts from around the world, an extensive mentor network as well as access to funders specializing in supporting startups. Through its affiliation with the ACIR, Nexus can also partner startups with entrepreneurial teams in ACIR to collaborate on creating a successful path to the market.

• Table of Content
• About NEXUS
• Nexus Incubator Program
• Aim and Benefits of Nexus Incubator Program
• Requirements for Nexus Incubator Program Qualification
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About NEXUS

Nexus is a collaboration between the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi and ACIR to showcase the best of American and Indian entrepreneurship, innovation and technology commercialization. Located in downtown New Delhi on Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Nexus serves as a central hub for entrepreneurs, innovators, faculty, government agencies, industry players and funding organizations interested in gathering, interacting and collaborating to promote Indian startups and the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. If you are involved with startups in India, we want to hear from you! The Nexus Incubator offers selected... continue reading

Nexus Incubator Program

Aim and Benefits of Nexus Incubator Program

Startups in the Nexus Incubator receive a host of benefits.

• Advanced capacity-building
• Hands-on training by both resident experts and from the United States, including access to the Nexus Mentor Network
• Acceleration of tech companies into the global marketplace
• Access to funding through angel investors, impact funds and venture capital
• Access to the extensive global commercial development networks of the ACIR and our Indian partners, including FICCI, TiE, IAN, ISB and others
• Long-term incubation space for eight months

In addition, Nexus startups receive a package of business services worth tens of thousands of dollars.

• Google Cloud credits which can be used for all services on Google Cloud Products and Firebase
• Amazon Web Services credits, including 1 year of AWS Business Support and credits for AWS Self-Paced Labs
• From HubSpot, free CRM + 90% off marketing, sales, and customer service software in the first year and 50% off in the next year
• From Knowlarity, which provides businesses cloud-based customer service and sales call handling solutions, startups will receive Super Conference (up to 10 users), SuperReceptionist Basic Plan (six months, extendable to a year), and Voice Based OTP Verification (up to 5000 minutes per month)
• A free year of TiE-Delhi NCR membership.
• Free year-long access to the American Center Library (on request)
• From Segment, up to $50,000 in Segment credits (enough to track 200,000 users for free for up to two years) and $1,000,000 in Segment exclusive partnership offers with companies like Amplitude, Intercom, Customer.io, Google Big Query, AWS Redshift, Mode Analytics and more.
• Paytm Payment gateway plan for startupsWaiver of payment gateway charges for first Rs 1 lakh of transactions a month for up to 12 months.
• ZohoOne Free credits for an entire year with saving of at least INR 18,000.
• Nexus startups will receive $4000 of credits for all Freshworks’ suite of products, a customer software solutions that make it easy for support, sales and marketing professionals to communicate effectively with customers and collaborate with team members to resolve customer issues.
• Notion credits worth $1,000.
• MIRO credits worth $1,000.
• Access to Sanchiconnect platform for 90+ institutional investors network, actively investing in deep tech.
• Gain Access to MathWorks’ tools for free for the first year of usage.
• Build your startup on the world’s most advanced DevSecOps platform. Get up to 20 seats of GitHub Enterprise free for one year and 50% off in year two.

Requirements for Nexus Incubator Program Qualification

• Open to a wide range of industries. However, due to time to market issues, startups in the pharmaceutical/drug discovery space will probably not be a good fit with Nexus.
• They look for companies that have a clear value proposition and quantifiable benefits. USUALLY, this will translate into companies with a business to business (B2B) model, but not always.
• Lastly, applicants must have an innovative component. If you have the latest e-commerce site, social media platform or are looking to start a franchise of an existing service, that’s great! However, Nexus is probably not the best place for you.

Application Deadline

How to Apply

They will initially be selecting up to 15 companies for the “pre-incubation phase” of 9 weeks. Each selected team can bring 2 team members into Nexus for the training, day-to-day mentoring and events. They will work together with you to sharpen your value proposition, define your target market, get market feedback on your product/technology and create and achieve milestones to bring your company to the market. A key part of their methodology is “getting out of the building” to collect real market data and the voice of the customer. Hands-on training programs will take place at Nexus by both U.S. and Indian experts.

After the initial 9 weeks, they will select 3-4 companies to stay at Nexus for a longer, more in-depth incubation period. These companies will have full access to the incubator facilities and network for up to an additional 8 months. During this time, they will work with you to take your company to the next level on getting your product to market, growing your customer and revenue base and, if appropriate, working to get you funding for scaling up operations and market growth.