Social impact startup grants, challenges and programmes

Open opportunities for Social impact founders: grants, pitch competitions, innovation challenges and incubation. Every listing offers ₹50,000+ or real support — a grant, funding, incubation or an accelerator place — with the deadline, amount and who can apply in one place.

5 open now

Filter these further on the full list

Early preview. Listings come from Unstop and from official programme pages, filtered by our rules, but nobody has checked them by hand yet. Confirm the details on the source before you apply.

Closing in the next 7 days (1)

Jaipuria Smart City Innovation Challenge 2026
by Jaipuria Institute of Management (JIM), Jaipur · College / university
Innovation challengeOpen to anyoneSocial impactOnline
Closes today12 Oct
Funding & benefits
₹25,000 to winner
Not yet checked by us · confirm on source · via Unstop · How we check
Apply on Unstop for Jaipuria Smart City Innovation Challenge 2026 (opens unstop.com in a new tab)

Closing in 8–14 days (1)

Government First Initiative (Karnataka paid pilots for startups)
by Startup Karnataka / KITS, Government of Karnataka · Government
AcceleratorStartupsAI & MLSaaS & enterprise
Closes in 11 days23 Oct
Funding & benefits
Up to ₹25L support
+ AccelerationGovernment of Karnataka acts as first customer: direct work order of up to ₹25L (subject to technical evaluation) to pilot a solution against a published government problem statement (current statements from BWSSB and Praja Seva). This is a paid pilot, not a grant.
Not yet checked by us · confirm on source · via eitbt.karnataka.gov.in · How we check
Apply on eitbt.karnataka.gov.in for Government First Initiative (Karnataka paid pilots for startups) (opens eitbt.karnataka.gov.in in a new tab)

Open now — no closing date published (3)

NSRCEL Impact Orbit – AgeTech Innovations
by NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore (Capgemini CSR) · Incubator
IncubationStartupsHealth & biotechSocial impact
Open now — no closing date
Funding & benefits
Up to ₹12.5L support
+ Grant+ Incubation+ MentorshipGrants up to INR 12.5 lakh (not guaranteed), incubation and domain mentoring; NSRCEL takes no equity and charges no programme fee; 8-9 months.
Not yet checked by us · confirm on source · via nsrcel.org · How we check
Apply on nsrcel.org for NSRCEL Impact Orbit – AgeTech Innovations (opens nsrcel.org in a new tab)
Hult Prize
by Hult Prize Foundation
Pitch & startup challengeStudentsSocial impact
Open now — no closing date
Funding & benefits
Up to ₹8.4Cr investment
+ AccelerationTakes equity — not free capitalUSD 1 million seed funding to the global winning team (converted at 1 USD = INR 84); Foundation typically takes about 10% equity. Stages: campus qualifiers or open application, nationals, digital incubator, global accelerator, global finals.
Not yet checked by us · confirm on source · via hultprize.org · How we check
Apply on hultprize.org for Hult Prize (opens hultprize.org in a new tab)
Kotak BizLabs Accelerator Programme
by Kotak Mahindra Bank (CSR) with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park · Accelerator / investor
AcceleratorStartupsAgri & foodClimate & energy
Open now — no closing date
Funding & benefits
Up to ₹30L support
+ Grant+ Acceleration+ MentorshipGrant (not equity) of up to INR 30 lakh per startup, subject to due diligence and milestones, with initial disbursement plus performance-linked top-up; bootcamps and 150+ mentoring hours for a cohort of 20.
Not yet checked by us · confirm on source · via iimcip.org · How we check
Apply on iimcip.org for Kotak BizLabs Accelerator Programme (opens iimcip.org in a new tab)

Social impact startup grants, challenges and programmes

Closing in the next 7 days (1)

Jaipuria Smart City Innovation Challenge 2026

Closing in 8–14 days (1)

Government First Initiative (Karnataka paid pilots for startups)

Open now — no closing date published (3)

NSRCEL Impact Orbit – AgeTech Innovations

Hult Prize

Kotak BizLabs Accelerator Programme