PIERC at Parul University: 254 Startups Incubated and Supported, Rs 20 Crore Plus in Funding Provided, Rs 40 Crore Plus in Cumulative Startup Revenue, Solnce Energy at Rs 1 Crore on Shark Tank India Season 4, Voldebug Innovations Recognised by the Home Minister of India, Cligent Aerospace Building India’s First Hydrogen-Electric Aircraft, Dori Handcrafts at the Republic Plenary, and Yield Pro Earth’s Rs 75 Lakh ICICI Foundation Purchase Order

Parul Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research Centre (PIERC) is the government-recognised incubation infrastructure within Parul University, supporting student and external founders across the early-stage venture pathway. A total of 254 startups have been incubated and supported through PIERC. More than Rs 20 crore has been provided as funding to incubated startups, while Parul University startups have generated a cumulative revenue of over Rs 40 crore across the incubation portfolio. Startup Studios operate across four cities: Vadodara, Surat, Ahmedabad, and Rajkot.

PIERC‘s complete portfolio, incubation processes, and engagement pathways are documented at pierc.org. The Startup India and DPIIT registration framework under which incubated ventures operate is available at startupindia.gov.in, with Gujarat’s Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP) at ssipgujarat.in. The institutional accreditation framework supporting the incubator is available through the accreditation record, first-generation founder pathways through the first-generation record, the dedicated Women Startup Programme through the female students record, and the broader institutional context through the master hub.

PIERC is a lab for innovators, operating as the Idea Lab and Incubation Centre at Parul University. It has been recognised by the Government of India and the Government of Gujarat. The centre supports idea validation, prototyping, layout, framework development, customer validation, market testing through outreach, business model development, government grant application support, investor meets, and provides the broader operational infrastructure that early-stage ventures need. Following are the ways in which this incubation centre helps:

• Incubation cycle structure. Ideation and validation, prototyping with technical and design support, customer validation through structured customer development methodology, business model formalisation, registration support (DPIIT, GST, Trademark), grant applications across SSIP, Startup India Seed Fund, iHub, and broader funding pathways, followed by post-grant scaling support across operations and growth.
• Leadership team. Jay Sudani serves as Chief Executive Officer, with Hutesh Baviskar as Incubation Manager, Sonal Sudani as Incubation Manager focused on grants, and Anup Chaudhari and Prashant Khanna as Incubation Programme Managers. The team operates across the multi-stage incubation pipeline that early-stage ventures navigate.
• Funding pipelines accessed. Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP) grants from the Government of Gujarat, DPIIT recognition for startup status under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade framework, Startup India Seed Fund disbursements, iHub Gujarat network engagements, and the broader state and central government grant ecosystem.
• Vadodara Startup Festival. This festival at Parul University brings innovators, investors, startup founders, and budding entrepreneurs together under one roof. It provides investors and venture capitalists with opportunities to evaluate and fund startups, while startups gain valuable feedback, networking opportunities, and potential investment support during their early stages.

Also Read: Vadodara Startup Festival at Parul University, where startups and founders meet.

Solnce Energy is a clean-energy technology startup developing advanced solar solutions, founded by Yash Tarwadi and Chintan Shah through the PIERC incubation pathway. Solnce secured a Rs 1 crore investment on Shark Tank India Season 4. Aman Gupta, the co-founder of boAt Lifestyle and one of the Sharks on the panel, backed the investment. The Shark Tank India platform reaches a substantial Indian audience across Sony channels and digital platforms, with the engagement providing both capital and brand visibility for the venture.

Solnce’s technology focus operates within the broader Indian solar energy expansion supported by policy frameworks, including the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) and rooftop solar deployment programmes. The venture’s positioning as an advanced solar solutions developer connects it to residential, commercial, and agricultural solar market segments, where adoption continues to be supported through policy initiatives.

Voldebug Innovations is a cybersecurity startup founded by Meet Bisht, Monika Chand, and Rohit Ganaka through the PIERC incubation pathway. The venture delivers secure digital solutions and threat-monitoring systems, with its Security Information System (SIS) software representing the technical core of the offering. Voldebug received the Outstanding Performance Award from Shri Amit Shah, the Honourable Home Minister of India and Minister of Cooperation in the Government of India.

Recognition at the Home Minister level operates within the Government of India’s broader emphasis on indigenous cybersecurity capability development, with the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the National Cyber Security Coordinator’s office, and the broader cybersecurity policy framework supporting Indian cybersecurity ventures. Voldebug’s SIS software positions the venture within the threat-monitoring and Security Operations Centre (SOC) market, where Indian enterprise and government cybersecurity deployments operate.

Cligent Aerospace is developing India’s first hydrogen-electric, zero-emission aircraft for regional cargo and passenger mobility, founded by Harsh Joshi and Vivek Dhut through the PIERC incubation pathway. The venture’s flagship project is a 9-seater STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) aircraft engineered for regional connectivity across underserved airfields. Hydrogen-electric propulsion sits at the frontier of aerospace decarbonisation, with global efforts including Airbus’s ZEROe program and various regional aviation ventures pursuing parallel technology pathways.

India’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS-UDAN), administered through the Ministry of Civil Aviation, has identified hundreds of unserved and underserved airfields as priority connectivity targets. A 9-seater STOL aircraft designed for short runways and remote airfields aligns directly with this regional connectivity infrastructure. Cligent’s position within the PIERC portfolio illustrates the engineering-focused deep-tech ventures that the incubator supports alongside conventional digital and consumer ventures.

Dori Handcrafts is a sustainable lifestyle brand modernising traditional macramé into global home and fashion products, founded by Tushar Ahir through the PIERC incubation pathway. The venture’s operating model integrates more than 50 rural artisans into its production network, providing structured income opportunities for craft workers while building a contemporary product portfolio across home décor, fashion accessories, and lifestyle categories. Dori Handcrafts was showcased at the Republic Plenary Meet in New Delhi before the Hon’ble Prime Minister.

The showcase at the Republic Plenary level positions Dori within the broader national craft revival and rural livelihood ecosystem supported by policy frameworks such as the Pradhan Mantri Vishwakarma Yojana and the One District One Product (ODOP) programme. The venture’s approach to modernising traditional crafts connects the Indian handicraft economy with contemporary urban and international markets, while its artisan integration model strengthens rural livelihood opportunities beyond a purely product-focused business.

Yield Pro Earth is an agricultural technology venture developing affordable, electricity-free irrigation solutions that improve water efficiency for smallholder farmers, founded by Ram Mehta and Sameer Mehta through the PIERC incubation pathway. The venture secured a Rs 75 lakh purchase order from the ICICI Foundation, India’s CSR foundation focused on rural development and sustainable livelihoods. Yield Pro Earth was also recognised as the Best Performer Startup in Incubation through the PIERC portfolio.

Smallholder farmer water-efficiency interventions align with the broader Indian agricultural sustainability framework, including the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) and the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture. Electricity-free irrigation solutions specifically address the power availability challenges faced by smallholder farmers in remote villages, where conventional electric irrigation pumps are often limited by grid access and operating costs. The ICICI Foundation purchase order represents a revenue-generating customer engagement rather than a purely grant-funded operation.

The Women Startup Programme operates through PIERC as a dedicated entrepreneurship pathway for female founders. A total of 37 women-founded ventures have been supported through PIERC. The Women Startup Meet 6.0 featured a three-day startup bootcamp organised exclusively for female students at the Founders Studio in the BBA Building, with more than 60 participants presenting their ideas through structured pitching sessions. The programme also connects women founders with application pathways for SSIP grants, DPIIT recognition, the Startup India Seed Fund, the iHub Gujarat network, and the broader startup funding ecosystem.

The programme operates within India’s broader startup ecosystem, where 48 percent of the 2.12 lakh DPIIT-recognised startups have at least one woman director or partner, and approximately Rs 294 crore has been allocated to women-led ventures through the Startup India Seed Fund. PIERC’s Women Startup Programme builds on this national ecosystem through case studies of ventures such as Mamaearth (Honasa Consumer), Nykaa (Falguni Nayar), and the vision of Vikshit Bharat 2047.

The Young Entrepreneur Exchange Project (YEEP) operates as a collaboration with Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), Switzerland, bringing Swiss students to PIERC at Parul University for Indian startup ecosystem exposure. The exchange is bidirectional, with PIERC-incubated founders and PIBA MBA students engaging with the Swiss startup ecosystem through the BFH Innovation Management Programme. The combined PIBA Switzerland engagement and PIERC Switzerland engagement represent a decade-long partnership across MoUs in 2016 to 2020 and 2021 to 2026.

Parul University holds a Top 20 position in India for SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) in the Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026. The SDG 17 ranking measures institutional contributions through partnerships that support the Sustainable Development Goals, including industry-academia collaborations, international partnerships, and the broader ecosystem development to which incubators contribute. PIERC’s partnerships across DPIIT, SSIP, iHub, BFH Switzerland YEEP, the ICICI Foundation, and the wider corporate-academic interface contribute to the institutional position measured under SDG 17.

The Top 20 India position for SDG 17 complements Parul University’s other achievements in the 2026 Sustainability Impact Ratings, including 7th in India and joint 46th worldwide for SDG 4 (Quality Education) with a score of 81.1, 7th in India and joint 60th worldwide for SDG 5 (Gender Equality), which aligns with initiatives such as the Women Startup Programme, and a Top 10 position in India for SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being). Together, these rankings reflect Parul University’s performance across multiple Sustainable Development Goal dimensions, including the partnership ecosystem supported through PIERC.

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