The PhysicsWallah Startup India partnership will support up to 25,000 early-stage entrepreneurs over two years, with programmes covering training, mentorship, incubation, investor access and seed funding across Tier-II and Tier-III cities and rural areas.
PhysicsWallah School of Startups, the entrepreneurship wing of education company PhysicsWallah, has entered into the collaboration with Startup India under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The partnership is designed to provide end-to-end support to early-stage ventures, including structured online and residential training, product prototyping guidance, incubation infrastructure, investor access and early-stage capital. The initiative will focus on grassroots entrepreneurship, deep-tech innovation and venture incubation beyond the country’s largest startup centres.
One of the programmes, PW UDYAMI, will offer a 90-day live online training programme followed by one year of mentorship for entrepreneurs from small towns and rural areas. The five-day Aarambh Immersion programme will focus on prototype development, pitch preparation and networking.
For ventures that have moved beyond the earliest stage, the Growth Stage CEO Program will support 200 DPIIT-recognised startups through four hybrid cohorts. The programme is intended to help participating founders prepare for growth funding, according to the information released about the partnership.
The collaboration will also include the six-month PW DeepTech Accelerator for selected high-potential ventures. Early-stage innovators are expected to receive access to proof-of-concept opportunities, corporate pilots and seed investment through the annual National AI Startup Challenge and SeedX programme.
PW School of Startups is an accredited incubator under the StartInUP initiative of the Uttar Pradesh government. The company said startups would also be able to access incubation support and seed grants at the StartInUP Business Incubation Centre hosted by PW SoS.
Ateesh Kumar Singh, additional secretary at DPIIT, said supporting entrepreneurs beyond Tier-I cities was important to strengthening India’s startup ecosystem. He said the partnership would help grassroots innovators access resources, mentorship and infrastructure to develop scalable, job-creating businesses.
Rounaq Mustafa, head of PW SoS, said the collaboration would focus on making knowledge, mentorship and funding accessible to aspiring founders through programmes including PW UDYAMI, Aarambh and the deep-tech acceleration initiative. The partnership’s announced programmes will now determine how founders in smaller cities and rural areas access incubation and early-stage capital over the two-year period.
