Grants, fellowships and campus-linked funding open to student entrepreneurs and recent graduates — capital you can raise while still enrolled, usually without needing a registered company on day one.
iCreate connects innovators and startups at the idea-to-PoC stage with government funding schemes from GoI and the Government of Gujarat, alongside mentorship, lab access, and on-campus incubation.
ACE $100k is a high-touch, founder-first accelerator for early-stage AI and deeptech startups, offering up to $100K in capital with six months of intensive support across product, GTM, hiring, and fundraising. Only a very small cohort is selected for deep engagement.
Equity-free grant for Indian founders with bold zero-to-one ideas, from Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
₹2.25 crore equity-free grant for founders aged 22 or younger, drop out of college and build for two years.
Deep-tech pre-seed incubation for final year students and recent graduates at IIT Delhi, offering up to ₹5L equity-free grant and lab access.
An equity-free grant of up to ₹20L by EIL & SIIC IIT Kanpur to turn novel ideas into working prototypes for Indian citizens and student innovators.
Equity-free grant up to ₹5L & incubation for student founders by IIM Bangalore.
BE3 challenge: cash + RD grant for bio-concept proposals, Indian nationals.
Pre-incubation for early-stage & student founders, limited cohort.
Grants of ₹2.5–10 lakh for student innovators in Gujarat to develop prototypes and reach market readiness.
NUZEN Agri-Startup Grant by NaaViC/ICAR-NIVEDI awards up to ₹4L non-dilutive grant to student innovators for agriculture and allied sector ideas at idea-to-prototype stage.
Up to ₹10L grant for early-stage innovators in DeepTech, AI/ML, AgriTech, and Sustainability by Runway Incubator, UPES DST-iTBI.
Student programmes lean early: idea and prototype stage, smaller cheques, and incubation support through a college or government innovation cell. They're the natural first rung before a DPIIT-recognised startup grant.
What founders ask about student entrepreneurs funding.