Nikhil Kamath, Kishore Biyani Launch The Foundery: All About Their 90-Day Entrepreneurship Programme

Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath and Future Group Founder Kishore Biyani have entered into a collaboration to launch ‘The Foundery’, an experimental residential business launchpad. Positioned as a co-founder factory, ‘The Foundery’ aims to build investment-ready startups through a structured 90-day programme under the joint initiative by Kamath’s WTF and Kishore Biyani's Think9 networks.

Kamath represents India’s tech startup wave, while Biyani is known for the retail boom of the 1990s and 2000s. They have collaborated to integrate two eras of entrepreneurship, providing aspiring startup founders with valuable experience, credibility, and practical knowledge to build successful businesses.

“A place where India’s next generation of entrepreneurs are forged,” the official website of Alibaug-based The Foundery states.

The Foundery will combine aspects of a school, accelerator and venture studio for budding entrepreneurs. However, it is not a typical startup incubator. The 90-day residential business launchpad has been designed to turn ideas into investment-ready startups. It will involve 30 co-founders and 20 businesses, where participants will get a chance to build ventures in real time.

“Beyond your co-founders, you will build with some of India’s most accomplished entrepreneurs, operators, and creative minds,” the company’s website reads. It showed that the programme will be mentored by industry leaders such as Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Caratlane’s Mithun Sacheti, Kunal Bahl, ace investors and leadership coaches, among others.

The applications for this programme will open in late December 2025 and close by mid-January 2026.

According to Forbes, a key feature of The Foundery is its equity-linked model, allowing participants to keep up to 25% ownership in the startups they create. Successful ventures can receive seed funding up to Rs 4 crore and ongoing strategic support. Each cohort ends with a Demo Day, where founders pitch their businesses to a select group of investors.

The report added that the initiative will focus on identifying individuals who can grow into effective operators, capable of building and running successful startups, rather than just delivering impressive pitches.