Deadline Date: January 16, 2026
The DERBI Foundation is inviting applications for its Karnataka Acceleration Network Program, a flagship 6-month acceleration program initiated by the Government of Karnataka to fuel the growth of high-potential #startups across the state.
The offerings focus on strengthening collaboration among accelerators and incubators, supporting startup growth, enabling fundraising and exit planning, facilitating technology commercialization, providing expert advisory, promoting industry and global connections, supporting intellectual property protection, and helping translate research and development into market-ready ventures.
The program will operate through six selected accelerators and incubators divided between Bengaluru and Beyond Bengaluru clusters. Bengaluru-based accelerators will function as mentor accelerators, while those in the Beyond Bengaluru clusters will serve as mentee accelerators and incubators, with mentors guiding and supporting them through shared expertise and experience.
The accelerator and incubator pairs selected for the program include Jain Launchpad with SJCE-STEP, DERBI Foundation with SHINE Foundation, and GINSERV with ASTRA. These partnerships are intended to foster consistent collaboration and capacity building across regions.
Over a three-year period, the network will run a total of 18 cohorts. Each mentor-mentee pair will conduct two cohorts per year, ensuring sustained engagement and continuous knowledge exchange to drive startup growth in the targeted areas.
Startups eligible for consideration must be incorporated as any company other than OPC (One Person Company), be at the stage of MVP-ready, PoC to early revenue or traction, or seed funded, have founders who are open to active engagement and assessment-driven workshops, and be registered in Karnataka.
For more information, visit DERBI Foundation.
