BITS Pilani's BITSoM Launches VERTEX AI Incubator With LENZ to Scale India’s Next 100 AI Startups

• Partnering with Silicon Valley’s LENZ, this industry-led incubator is launching a nationwide search to help high-potential founders move from Ideas to MVP to enterprise pilots.

BITS School of Management (BITSoM), under the aegis of BITS Pilani, today unveils BITSoM VERTEX, a premier AI incubator developed in partnership with LENZ, a leading Silicon Valley AI Innovation Studio. The incubator is designed to catapult emerging AI startups into high-growth, enterprise-ready AI businesses. To kick-start this journey, BITSoM is partnering with Hack2Skill to launch a nationwide search for India's most promising AI founders. Through this initiative, BITSoM will support founders in moving beyond MVPs to build enterprise-validated, highly scalable AI products and businesses.

India has rapidly emerged as one of the world's fastest-growing AI innovation hubs, powered by world-class technical talent and a vibrant startup culture. However, early-stage AI founders often hit a bottleneck when transitioning from a promising Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to commercial viability. Critical growth barriers include securing enterprise pilot opportunities, separating AI products from AI wrappers, validating market demand, refining business models, , and preparing for institutional investment. BITSoM VERTEX was specifically designed to solve these exact friction points.

Over the next three years, the incubator aims to graduate 100 AI startups through its structured incubation programme. To achieve this, the program provides comprehensive resources tailored to early-stage acceleration. Selected startups will gain access to Silicon Valley expertise, venture-building mentorship, and global frameworks through LENZ. To ensure commercial validation, the incubator offers dedicated pathways to enterprise pilot opportunities and real-world customer testing. Furthermore, founders will benefit from investor networks, funding pathways, and state-of-the-art AI infrastructure, alongside dedicated student venture teams from BITSoM who will work directly with startups on business development and market research.

"Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping industries and redefining how businesses operate," said Prof. Saravanan Kesavan, Dean and Professor of Operations, BITSoM. "As a business school preparing tomorrow's leaders, our role extends beyond classroom education to actively fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Through BITSoM VERTEX, we are creating a powerful ecosystem where founders can learn from seasoned business leaders, collaborate closely with industry partners, and build companies that solve meaningful, real-world problems. Moreover, our students will get an unparalleled opportunity to work very closely with founders and play a pivotal role in the growth of early-stage AI ventures. This experiential journey, will prepare them to build with AI or even start their own AI companies."

"India needs more global AI startups like Sarvam and Emergent. BITSoM VERTEX seeks such AI entrepreneurs who have the relentless desire to solve local AI problems that have a global scale" added Arvind Ravishunkar, Managing Director, BITSoM VERTEX. " With 5+million software engineers, a leading digital finance ecosystem and a captive 1.4M demand, India is ripe to participate in meaningful AI innovation. Through BITSoM VERTEX, we want to give founders immediate access to customers, talent, and resources that can help them scale faster. "

We welcome applications from AI startups across all domains and emerging AI technologies. However, given India's national priorities and AI technology maturity, we have identified key areas where our expertise and resources can drive maximum impact : enterprise AI, software automation and tools, vertical AI, multilingual AI, edtech AI and financial AI.

Applications for the inaugural cohort of BITSoM VERTEX are now officially open. Founders from across India who are leveraging AI to solve complex business and societal challenges are invited to apply through the official portal.

For further information, log on to: vertex.bitsom.edu.in

About BITSoM

BITS School of Management (BITSoM) is a new-age global business school under the aegis of BITS Pilani, an Institution of Eminence. Located near Mumbai, BITSoM combines academic rigour with industry engagement to prepare future business leaders for a rapidly changing world. Its MBA programme brings together a globally benchmarked curriculum, distinguished faculty and experiential learning to equip graduates with the skills needed to lead in an AI-driven business environment.