SPPU students drive startup surge across food, tech sectors

Pune: A growing trend is visible among college students toward launching startups, particularly in sectors like food processing, healthcare, deep tech, and education. This shift was highlighted during a series of bootcamps conducted by Savitribai Phule Pune University's Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Enterprise, where 432 startup ideas were presented. Among these, food processing led with 87 ideas, while deep tech and healthcare followed closely with 76 ideas each.From these submissions, 100 ideas were shortlisted for further development. Among them, 51 startups that progressed to the prototype or investment-ready stage were featured at the SPPU Startup Olympiad 2026, which concluded on Wednesday. Ten teams received pre-seed funding of Rs25,000 each, while several others secured investments during the event.Students presented ideas across diverse sectors, including agriculture, healthcare, education, supply chain, food, and the environment."The objective of this initiative is to provide guidance, network and incubation support to students from diverse academic backgrounds to develop their innovations into viable enterprises," said Devidas Golhar, director of the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Enterprise.The university, to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, organised 20 startup boot camps across Pune, Ahilyanagar and Nashik districts between Jan 27 and Feb 18. The programme attracted nearly 4,000 students, reflecting an increasing interest in alternative career paths beyond conventional jobs.Golhar emphasised that the university is continuously strengthening its startup ecosystem through initiatives like bootcamps and the Startup Olympiad, encouraging students to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and create innovative solutions."The selected teams will present their concepts before expert juries, mentors and potential investors. Promising ideas will be further supported through the SPPU Incubation Centre," Golhar added.The strong participation and wide range of ideas underline a growing entrepreneurial mindset among students in the region, supported by institutional efforts to turn innovation into impact.