Madhya Pradesh is writing a different story than the rest of India in 2025-26. While national venture capital tightened — seed and early-stage funding dropped up to 32% year-on-year in Q3 2025 — MP announced a ₹100 Crore Seed Capital Fund at the Global Investors Summit and doubled down on a full lifecycle policy covering every cost a startup faces. Alongside the fund, the state set an explicit target: double the number of DPIIT-recognised startups to 10,000 within five years — a signal that this is infrastructure building, not a one-off injection. The ₹100 Crore fund targets early-stage startups across manufacturing and services — the two sectors where Central India already has industrial depth. The MP Startup Policy layers on: 18% investment assistance for women and SC/ST entrepreneurs (up to ₹18 lakh), 50% lease rental reimbursement (₹5,000/month cap, 3 years), ₹5 lakh patent filing support, and ₹1.5 lakh international event participation. Four city hubs anchor the network: Indore (Crystal IT Park, Indore Smart Seed 150 seats, IIM/IIT Indore), Bhopal (B-Nest, MANIT, MPSEDC IT Park), Jabalpur, and Gwalior. TiE Indore MP — led by President Sawan Laddha — connects the dots with Angel Invest pitch sessions, TiE Nurture mentorship, and TiECon MP events that have attracted investors managing ₹400 crore+ to the region. Success stories already validate the thesis: ShopKirana ($60M+ raised, 500+ employees), Gramophone (AgriTech full-stack), Appointy (bootstrapped global SaaS from Bhopal).
The MP Startup Policy: A Lifecycle, Not a One-Off
The MP Startup Policy and Implementation Scheme 2022 — launched by the Prime Minister in Indore — laid the foundation. The 2025 iteration at MP GIS doubled down: the ₹100 Crore Seed Capital Fund is the headline, but the real structural advantage is the incentive table that surrounds it. Most state startup policies offer a seed fund. MP added reimbursements for every major cost line a startup faces in its first three years.
| Incentive / Scheme | Benefit | Condition / Cap |
|---|---|---|
| ₹100 Crore Seed Capital Fund | Direct early-stage funding for validated startups | All eligible MP startups, priority: manufacturing & services |
| Investment Assistance | Up to 18% of total investment amount | Women and SC/ST entrepreneurs only, capped at ₹18 lakh |
| Lease Rental Reimbursement | 50% of monthly lease rental | Capped at ₹5,000/month, for 3 years |
| Patent / IP Reimbursement | Assistance for patent filing costs | Up to ₹5 lakh per patent application |
| Event Participation Support | Up to 75% of expenses reimbursed | ₹50K domestic / ₹1.5 lakh international events |
Why the Incentive Table Changes the Equation
Runway extension math: A seed-stage startup burning ₹3 lakh/month gets ₹5,000/month lease back, ₹5 lakh patent reimbursement when filing IP, and event costs covered when attending investor summits. That is not headline money — it is operational friction removal. Combined with the 30-40% lower base costs of Central India cities versus metros, the effective burn rate drops further, stretching every rupee of seed capital.
Manufacturing alignment is deliberate: The policy explicitly prioritises manufacturing and services — not just software. This means startups building physical products (electronics in Indore, pharmaceuticals in Bhopal, food processing in Jabalpur) access the same incentive stack as SaaS companies. It is the only heartland state policy that treats hardware and manufacturing as first-class startup categories.
Inclusion as strategy: The 18% investment assistance for women and SC/ST founders is not a token gesture. Capped at ₹18 lakh, it functions as a co-investment — the government matches a portion of what private investors put in. For a startup raising ₹1 crore, this adds ₹18 lakh of non-dilutive capital on top.
The Incubator Network: Indore to Bhopal
MP's incubation infrastructure is concentrated in two cities — Indore and Bhopal — with emerging hubs in Jabalpur and Gwalior. Each city pairs a physical incubator with an institutional anchor (IIM, IIT, or MANIT), creating the talent-plus-infrastructure combination that makes incubation actually work.
Indore Smart Seed Incubation Centre
Central India Hub — IIMA Ventures + Smart City- Central India operations hub for IIMA Ventures: CIIE.CO designated Indore Smart Seed as its Central India base, bringing IIM Ahmedabad credibility, mentorship networks, and the Innocity platform directly into Madhya Pradesh. This is the only incubator in heartland India with a direct IIM Ahmedabad operational link.
- 150-seat full-service infrastructure: Open coworking, team rooms, meeting rooms, a conference room, and an event area — all in one facility. First-time founders get a professional workspace without the overhead of a private office.
- Programs span the startup lifecycle: Startup School (foundational education), Incubation (long-term product and market development), and Acceleration (intensive growth for validated startups). Innocity Learn and Innocity Connect sessions run regularly — the former teaches business fundamentals, the latter connects founders to the local ecosystem.
- Ecosystem coordination role: Indore Smart Seed functions as the connective tissue between incubators, mentors, investors, and startups across Central India. It is the default first stop for any founder arriving in MP's startup system.
B-Nest — Bhopal's Digital Economy Incubator
Talent Pipeline into Tech and Digital- Digital economy talent pipeline: B-Nest actively channels talent from Bhopal's university ecosystem — particularly MANIT (Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology) — into startups working on digital products, SaaS, and technology services. It bridges the gap between academic research and commercial ventures.
- Bhopal's proof of concept: Appointy — a bootstrapped online scheduling platform serving global clients from a 4-acre campus in Bhopal — is B-Nest's most visible validation. The company built a globally competitive SaaS product without venture capital, proving that Bhopal's talent and cost structure support world-class software development.
- Pharma and life sciences adjacency: Bhopal's pharmaceutical industry base creates natural opportunities for healthtech, medtech, and pharma-tech startups. B-Nest positions itself to capture this vertical as it matures, connecting university research with commercial applications.
IIM Indore & IIT Indore — Institutional Incubation
Business Strategy + Deep-Tech Engineering- IIM Indore — business strategy and scaling: Faculty expertise across finance, operations, marketing, and strategy provides startups with the kind of structured business development support that is rare outside metro incubators. Alumni networks connect portfolio companies directly with corporate decision-makers.
- IIT Indore — engineering and deep-tech: Technical excellence in engineering, computer science, and applied sciences creates the talent pipeline for hardware, IoT, and deep-tech startups. Student projects frequently become the seed of real ventures, especially in AI, robotics, and sensor technology.
- Credibility acceleration: Being backed by an IIM or IIT instantly improves a startup's positioning with investors and enterprise clients. In a funding-cautious environment, institutional credibility is not a nice-to-have — it is a fundraising advantage.
TiE Indore MP: The Network That Connects Policy to Capital
State policy creates the framework. TiE Indore MP, led by President Sawan Laddha (founder of Workie Office Spaces, 22,000+ seats delivered, YPO MP founding member), translates that framework into action — connecting founders with the investors, mentors, and corporates who actually deploy capital in Central India.
TiE Indore MP
Central India's Premier Entrepreneurship Network- TiE Nurture — mentorship with skin in the game: Charter Members — successful entrepreneurs, investors, and executives — mentor founders on scaling, product-market fit, and fundraising. This is not classroom advice; these are people who have built and exited businesses, offering real-world guidance on the specific challenges of building from Central India.
- TiE Angel Invest — direct investor access: Pitch sessions connect startups with angel investors and VCs. TiE Indore's recent events have attracted investors managing over ₹400 crore to the region — a rare concentration of capital for a tier-2 ecosystem. Founders learn to pitch with the MP Startup Policy incentives built into their narrative, making capital-efficient growth plans compelling to investors.
- TiECon MP — the flagship event: Annual networking event bringing the entire ecosystem together. Startups, mentors, investors, corporates, government officials. It is the single most important event for a founder in Central India — the room where connections are made and deals get started.
- Women MP and inclusion programs: TiE Women MP runs dedicated programming for women founders, addressing the specific challenges women entrepreneurs face in accessing networks and capital in Central India. This complements the MP Startup Policy's 18% investment assistance for women entrepreneurs.
The Four Hubs: Central India's Startup Geography
🏙️ Indore
The clear anchor. Crystal IT Park (MPSEDC), Electronics Complex, Indore Smart Seed (150 seats), IIM Indore, IIT Indore. ShopKirana ($60M+) and Gramophone (AgriTech) are the proof points. TiE Indore MP runs the investor pipeline. 30-40% lower costs than metros make seed capital go further.
🏛️ Bhopal
State capital with pharmaceutical and government-tech depth. B-Nest channels MANIT talent into digital ventures. MPSEDC IT Park provides infrastructure. Appointy — bootstrapped global SaaS — is Bhopal's signature success story. Pharma-tech and healthtech are the emerging verticals.
🌾 Jabalpur
Food processing and agritech territory. Central MP's agricultural belt creates natural demand for farm-to-market logistics, food safety, and supply chain startups. Early-stage but positioned to benefit from the ₹100 Crore fund's manufacturing-first thesis as policy reach expands beyond Indore and Bhopal.
⚙️ Gwalior
Light manufacturing and defence-adjacent industries. Proximity to Delhi NCR (via train corridor) gives Gwalior startups easier access to government clients and corporate buyers than other MP cities. Government-tech and defence-tech startups have a natural advantage here.
Success Stories: The Heartland Thesis Validated
ShopKirana ($60M+ raised, 500+ employees): Founded in Indore, ShopKirana built a B2B commerce platform that works directly with brands to reach retailers with transparency and deep market intelligence. The company scaled to 500+ employees and $60M+ in funding entirely from Central India — one of the largest exits to emerge from a tier-2 city. It proves that investor appetite for MP startups solving grassroots distribution problems is real.
Gramophone (AgriTech full-stack): A one-stop solution for farmers — crop advisory, weather information, and doorstep delivery of genuine inputs (seeds, crop protection, nutrition). Gramophone works because it was built in the agricultural heartland, close to the farmers it serves. Metro-based AgriTech often struggles with product-market fit; Gramophone's proximity gave it an understanding that no amount of research could replicate.
Appointy (Bootstrapped global SaaS, Bhopal): An online scheduling platform serving global clients — built entirely from a 4-acre campus in Bhopal without venture capital. Appointy is the clearest validation of the capital-efficiency thesis: lower operating costs in Central India enable profitability margins that are structurally impossible in Bangalore or Delhi. It is also a blueprint — geographic arbitrage (Central India development costs plus international customer pricing) is a repeatable strategy, not a one-off.
The Funding Ladder: From Policy to Institutional Capital
MP's real advantage is not any single fund or incubator — it is the sequence. The state built a funding ladder that takes a founder from idea to Series A readiness using mostly public money and non-dilutive support before introducing equity at the stage where it matters most.
💰 The MP Funding Sequence
Step 1 — DPIIT Recognition: The prerequisite. Register on Startup India. Costs nothing, unlocks everything else.
Step 2 — Policy Incentives (operational): Lease rental reimbursement (₹5K/month), event participation support (₹1.5L international), patent assistance (₹5L). These reduce burn from day one — no application lag, just lower costs.
Step 3 — ₹100 Crore Seed Capital Fund: Direct early-stage funding for validated startups. Applications through MPSEDC. Priority: manufacturing and services sectors.
Step 4 — 18% Investment Assistance (women/SC/ST): Layered on top of private investment. If an angel puts in ₹1 crore, the government adds ₹18 lakh. Non-dilutive, automatic for qualifying founders.
Step 5 — TiE Angel Invest & Institutional Incubation: TiE Indore MP pitch sessions connect funded startups with angels and VCs. IIM Indore or IIT Indore incubation adds credibility for Series A positioning.
Step 6 — Series A readiness: By this point, a startup has government validation (seed fund), institutional backing (IIM/IIT), traction from the seed runway, and investor relationships from TiE events. The pitch writes itself.
How to Navigate MP's Ecosystem: A Practical Framework
For a growth-stage agency helping founders navigate Central India's incubator and funding landscape — the way Naraway does across India — the selection logic is clear. MP's ecosystem rewards founders who treat policy as strategy, not an afterthought.
Match the incubator to what you're building: Manufacturing or hardware → Crystal IT Park + IIT Indore incubation (the only combination in MP with both subsidised infrastructure and engineering depth). SaaS or digital products → B-Nest Bhopal (if the founding team is Bhopal-based and targeting global customers) or Indore Smart Seed (if you need the broader ecosystem and investor pipeline). AgriTech or food processing → Indore Smart Seed plus direct engagement with the ₹100 Crore fund's manufacturing-priority tracks. Business-strategy-heavy startups needing investor readiness → IIM Indore ecosystem or TiE Indore MP's TiE Nurture programme.
Layer the incentives deliberately: Lease rental reimbursement from day one. Patent filing support when you hit IP milestones. Event participation budget when you attend investor conferences. The ₹100 Crore seed fund when the concept is validated. The 18% investment assistance when private capital comes in. Each layer reduces the effective cost of building — and none of them require equity.
Use TiE Indore MP as the investor bridge: The network matters more than any single incubator in MP. Charter Members have built and exited companies. TiECon MP has attracted ₹400 crore+ in investor capital. TiE Angel Invest creates warm introductions that cold outreach cannot. For a Central India founder, TiE membership is not optional — it is the shortest path to institutional capital.
Quick Reference: Key Contacts
📌 Indore Ecosystem
Indore Smart Seed: indoresmartseed.com — 150 seats, Central India hub
IIM Indore: Prabandh Shikhar, Rau-Pithampur Road, Indore 453556 | cao@iimidr.ac.in | +91-731-2439666
Crystal IT Park: MPSEDC, Indore — subsidised infrastructure for startups
IIMA Ventures (parent): iimaventures.com/incubation
📌 Bhopal Ecosystem
B-Nest: Bhopal — digital economy incubator, MANIT talent pipeline
MANIT Bhopal: Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology — research and engineering anchor
MPSEDC IT Park: Bhopal — state-backed IT infrastructure
📌 TiE Indore MP
President: Sawan Laddha | Affiliation: TiE Global
Programs: TiE Nurture, TiE Angel Invest, TiECon MP, TiE Women MP
Website: tieindia.org