WaveX takes 15 startups into each of its incubation centres and charges them ₹8,500 plus GST a month

WaveX is the dedicated startup accelerator platform under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's WAVES initiative, aimed at nurturing innovations in media, entertainment and language tech ^[13].

It opened its first media-tech incubator for the AVGC-XR sector with the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies in Mumbai, taking 15 startups into the first batch at a fee of ₹8,500 plus GST a month ^[2]. The programme site now lists nine incubation centres: IICT Mumbai, FTII Pune, SRFTI Kolkata, and IIMC campuses at Delhi, Aizawl, Amravati, Dhenkanal, Kottayam and Jammu ^[7]. Seven of those were announced in September 2025 on the terms that still apply: 15 startups selected for the first batch at each location, and a monthly fee of ₹8,500 plus GST per startup ^[3]. At that rate a seat costs ₹1.02 lakh over twelve months before GST, which is the Desk's arithmetic on the published monthly figure and not a figure the ministry states ^[3].

For the fee, a selected startup gets co-working space, audio-visual and digital labs and studios, high-speed connectivity and hosting servers, AWS and Google cloud credits, and sandbox testing in OTT, VFX, VR, gaming, animation, publishing and post-production ^[4]. The September announcement sets out the Mumbai incubator's equipment and says the new centres provide the same infrastructure: an 8K Red Raptor Vista Vision camera, a 4K HDR preview theatre with Dolby Atmos, a virtual production stage with LED walls, photogrammetry systems, sound and colour-mix theatres, 4K HDR edit suites and VR testing kits ^[5]. Participating startups are also offered international exposure at VivaTech in Paris and the Game Developers Conference in the United States ^[4].

The network is being built with institutional partners: T-Hub in Hyderabad is the anchor institution under a memorandum signed in October 2025, under which WaveX is to establish up to 10 incubation centres across India ^[6]. In January 2026 WaveX signed an agreement with the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer at IIT Delhi covering operational guidance for setting up incubators, engagement with other IITs and innovation hubs, and capacity building for startups and incubation managers ^[11].

What the fee does not buy is capital: asked whether it will guarantee funding for a startup, the programme's published answer is "No, participation does not guarantee funding," and that it "only facilitates investor-startup interactions" ^[8]. That is a narrower proposition than the one the ministry set out when it launched the pitching track, describing WAVEX 2025 as "a pioneering initiative aimed at funding and providing national exposure to startups in the media and entertainment sector" ^[10]. The September 2025 release leaves the question open from the other side, listing "Funding support" among what selected startups receive without saying what form it takes or who provides it ^[12].

The eligibility that is published in detail is for the pitching track: startups registered in India, incorporated on or after 1 January 2016, and at bootstrapped, pre-seed, seed or Pre-Series A stage ^[9]. For the incubation centres the stated eligibility is a preference rather than a bar, with startups in the media-entertainment and AVGC-XR sectors to be given preference ^[3]. The terms published with the September 2025 announcement run to the batch size, the monthly fee and that preference, and state no cohort length ^[3].