PhysicsWallah, co-founded by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, has partnered with Startup India under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to support more than 25,000 aspiring and early-stage founders over the next two years.
The collaboration will focus on entrepreneurship in Tier-II and Tier-III cities and rural India, combining founder training, mentorship, product development, incubation, investor access and opportunities for seed funding.
The initiative is being led through PhysicsWallah School of Startups (PW SoS), the company’s entrepreneurship arm. The partnership aims to address a familiar challenge for founders outside major startup hubs: access to experienced mentors, startup infrastructure and investors.
PW UDYAMI and Aarambh to Help Early-Stage Founders
PW School of Startups will offer programmes designed for entrepreneurs at different stages of building a business.
PW UDYAMI will provide 90 days of live online training followed by one year of mentorship. The programme is aimed at entrepreneurs from smaller towns and rural areas who need structured guidance to develop their business ideas.
Aarambh Immersion will run as a five-day residential programme focused on prototype development, pitch preparation and networking.
For more established ventures, the Growth Stage CEO Program will support 200 DPIIT-recognised startups through four hybrid cohorts, helping founders prepare for growth-stage funding.
Deep-Tech Acceleration and Seed Funding Opportunities
The 6 month PW DeepTech Accelerator will support selected high-potential ventures with acceleration and funding opportunities.
Early-stage innovators will also be able to pursue POC development, corporate pilot projects and seed investment through the annual National AI Startup Challenge and SeedX initiatives.
PW School of Startups will additionally provide incubation support and seed-grant opportunities through the StartInUP Business Incubation Centre, which operates under the Uttar Pradesh government’s StartInUP initiative.
Ateesh Kumar Singh, Additional Secretary at DPIIT, said the partnership would help grassroots innovators access resources, mentorship and infrastructure to build scalable businesses and create jobs.
Rounaq Mustafa, Head of PW School of Startups, said the initiative aims to make entrepreneurial knowledge, mentorship and funding more accessible to founders across India.
Can the Partnership Strengthen Startup Ecosystems Beyond Metros?
For Alakh Pandey and PhysicsWallah, the collaboration extends the company’s work beyond education into structured support for entrepreneurs. It also brings together a private startup-support platform and the government’s Startup India network.
However, the target of supporting 25,000 founders should not be confused with a commitment to invest in 25,000 startups. The announced programmes include training and mentorship for a broad group, while acceleration, corporate pilots and seed funding will depend on the relevant programme and selection process.
The real measure of success will be how many participants move beyond training to validate products, win customers, raise capital and build sustainable businesses.
If the programmes deliver on that objective, the partnership could widen access to entrepreneurship support for founders who have promising ideas but fewer connections to established startup networks in India’s largest cities.
