# COEP's Bhau Institute of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership

> COEP’s Bhau Institute is a Pune-based, Section 8 nonprofit technology business incubator supported by the Department of Science and Technology and Maharashtra State Innovation Society. It helps students, individual innovators and early-stage technology startups validate ideas, build prototypes, develop businesses and apply for funding through incubation, shared laboratories, mentoring and government-backed programs.

- **Founded:** 2017
- **Headquarters:** Pune, India
- **Founders:** Narendra Kale (Co-founder; early financial backer), Sanjay Inamdar (Co-founder; early financial backer), Anil Sahasrabudhe (Co-founder; academic leader)
- **Products:** Pre-incubation, Physical incubation, Virtual incubation and Incubation Lite, NIDHI PRAYAS, NIDHI EIR
- **Notable:** April-June 2026 newsletter: 403 startups supported and 113 funded., Same dated dashboard: 1,500+ employment generated, 75 women-led startups and 175+ IPs generated; institute-reported, not independently audited here., Same dashboard separates ₹18.92 crore released/facilitated through Bhau from ₹44.03 crore external funds raised by incubatees; neither is institute revenue.

## Products & services

- **Pre-incubation** — Idea validation, introductory mentoring, training and business-plan development.
- **Physical incubation** — Selective on-site incubation with structured mentoring, shared facilities, service-provider access and funding facilitation.
- **Virtual incubation and Incubation Lite** — Offsite mentoring and training, or lighter access to resources at a nominal fee; virtual participants are expected at periodic in-person reviews.
- **NIDHI PRAYAS** — Bhau advertises prototyping grants up to ₹10 lakh for selected eligible innovators; software-development and pure academic-research projects are excluded under its published terms.
- **NIDHI EIR** — Entrepreneur-in-residence fellowship route for eligible technology founders; its listed application call was closed when checked.
- **NIDHI Seed Support** — Published seed-support route up to ₹50 lakh with equity or other investment instruments, due diligence and residency requirements; listed call closed when checked.
- **Startup India Seed Fund Scheme** — Assistance for proof of concept, prototypes, product trials, market entry and commercialization, subject to DPIIT and scheme eligibility.
- **SARTHI-Bhau and AMRUT-Bhau fellowships** — Eligible Maharashtra beneficiaries can receive ₹25,000 per month for 12 months, subject to milestones and scheme-specific criteria.
- **MahaJyoti-Bhau incubation** — Twelve-month support for up to 10 eligible Maharashtra innovators from specified communities; advertised deadline was 20 July 2026.
- **Maker’s lab and shared business services** — Prototyping equipment, meeting facilities and access to legal, IP, marketing, accounting and finance expertise.

## Achievements

- April-June 2026 newsletter: 403 startups supported and 113 funded.
- Same dated dashboard: 1,500+ employment generated, 75 women-led startups and 175+ IPs generated; institute-reported, not independently audited here.
- Same dashboard separates ₹18.92 crore released/facilitated through Bhau from ₹44.03 crore external funds raised by incubatees; neither is institute revenue.
- DANA-Bhau hackathon: 61 applications, six finalists and three grant-and-incubation winners, reported in the April-June 2026 newsletter.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — The April-June newsletter reports DANA hackathon winners, faculty-development work and exploratory co-incubation discussions with SINE; individual event dates are not specified.
- **2026-07** — MahaJyoti-Bhau advertised a 20 July application deadline and support for a maximum of 10 innovators.
- **2026-08** — Social Innovation Summit event listing scheduled the finale for 29 August, with ten finalists from 111+ applications and ideation grants planned for three winners; listing does not establish the actual winners.

## Links

- Website: https://bhau.org/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bhau-institute/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/COEPs_BHAU
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuOYjHnpZF8326TIxcx8RaQ
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhau_startup_ecosystem/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coep.bhau

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Last updated: 2026-10-24