Bhopal

What is on in Bhopal.

• Sat 31 Oct 6 pm eChai Startup Demo Day

Founders in Bhopal.

Bhopal's startups, on one map.

Where founders in Bhopal build.

Questions about Bhopal.

What does the startup ecosystem in Bhopal look like?

Small, and leaning on institutions rather than private capital. The strongest verticals are Edtech, IT services and SaaS, sitting on top of a heavy engineering and pharma base at Govindpura and Mandideep and a research bench at IISER, MANIT, NLIU and AIIMS. The companies list above shows who is building what, filterable by vertical.

Who are the best known startups from Bhopal?

Swaayatt Robots, an autonomous driving research company working on unstructured Indian traffic, is the most nationally visible. Appointy, Pabbly and Magnet Brains are the bootstrapped software names, all profitable and selling well outside the city, and TopRankers, We360.ai and The Kabadiwala are the funded ones.

Is Bhopal or Indore the bigger startup hub in Madhya Pradesh?

Indore, clearly. It holds most of the state's prominent startups, the organised angel capital and the bulk of TiE activity. Bhopal's weight is on the other side, as the seat of state policy and the home of the institutional incubators, which is a different thing to build a company next to.

What does the Madhya Pradesh startup policy offer a founder in Bhopal?

Startup MP is run by the state MSME department out of Bhopal, through the startup.mp.gov.in portal. It offers funding linked assistance to DPIIT recognised startups along with lease rental and patent support, extra assistance for women and SC and ST founders, and a state seed capital fund, and it publishes the list of recognised incubators and investors.

Which incubators and coworking spaces are in Bhopal?

The incubators are the serious part. IICE at IISER Bhopal, the Rolta Incubation Centre at MANIT, the SETU cell at IIFM, STPI at the IT Park and B-Nest under Bhopal Smart City are the ones that run programmes. On coworking, the operators are Workspace.City, S.PACE, The Work Culture and Fortune, most of them in or near MP Nagar. The full list is in the sections below.

Are there investors and VCs in Bhopal?

There is no angel network headquartered in the city. SWAN, the state's first angel network, is run out of Indore, and Bhopal founders who raise institutionally have generally done it from outside, as We360.ai did with GSF and SahiPay with 100x.vc. State assistance through Startup MP and the campus incubators is the capital most founders here actually see first.

Does eChai run events in Bhopal?

Not at the moment. eChai Bhopal had a run of events between 2015 and 2018, carried by local co-hosts CollegeKhabri and Appointy, and the chapter has been quiet since. The events section shows anything upcoming, and if you would like to help start it up again, get in touch.

How do I join the startup community in Bhopal?

What convenes founders here today is largely institutional, so start with the campus e-cells at MANIT and NLIU, the incubators listed below, and the state summits such as the MP Startup Summit. The communities section lists them. eChai is free and open wherever it runs, with no application or membership fee.