Welcome to BUILD, Boeing’s annual flagship aerospace innovation, leadership, and talent development effort in India.
It is designed to support India’s best and brightest university graduates and early-stage startup entrepreneurs by empowering innovative ideas.
2026 applications are open!
Boeing invites India’s innovators and entrepreneurs to apply. Applications are open and will close on April 4, 2026.
In India, for India, and the world
Designed specifically with India’s bustling innovator scene, BUILD gives graduates and entrepreneurs from across the country the opportunity to pitch and grow their business ideas in one of our incubator partners spread across the country.
Finalists go through an intensive learning programmes powered by Boeing’s knowledge library and get first-hand guidance from industry leaders who mentor them to shape raw ideas into minimum-viable product propositions.
The refining ideas, turned into business proposals, get pitched to Boeing and a vast ecosystem of investors, incubators, and entrepreneurs.
Impact
The program is open for the smartest, brightest, and most passionate innovators set to redefine the future of aerospace, defense, technology startups, sustainability, manufacturing, and many other industry verticals. We are looking for teams that have an appetite to not just solve challenges but also set new trends of growth and success in industries. Boeing seeks to empower projects in the areas of:
Aerospace and defence
- Aviation
- Defense technology
- Space technology
- Satellite & Commercial systems
- Autonomous vehicles & technologies
Technology startup
- IoT and Connectivity
- Future factories – Robotics & Automation
- Deep tech – AI and Machine Learning
- Digital Aviation Solutions
- Supply chain intelligence
Social impact
- Community and public welfare
- Medical aid / devices
- Education & skill development
- Urban / Rural development
Sustainability
- Sustainable fuels
- Sustainable & advanced materials
- Carbon footprint reduction
- Energy optimization
Process
Eligibility
The BUILD program is open to participants which fall under one of two categories:
Students
If you have graduated or are graduating in 2026 from the engineering stream for a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and/or enrolled in a Ph.D. program or are a postdoctoral researcher. Applications from professors are also accepted.
Entrepreneurs
If your startup is in an ideation / pre-seed stage, with a proof of concept, but without funding or an associated product and customers.
Applications can be submitted by individuals or team sizes are limited to 3 members per team only with no more than a professor per team, if any.
Evaluation
Boeing’s incubator partners from leading educational institutes in India will work with Boeing and subject matter experts to judge the applications and select finalists for the BUILD boot camp. The incubators will partner with the selected teams to shape their ideas into market-ready viable products. Shortlisted teams for the BUILD program get to:
Learn in a structured environment
Receive coaching by incubators and get exposed to a broad ecosystem
Practice turning ideas into business proposals
Use industry-proven tools and practice essential skills
Share what you learn
Network with your peers and ecosystem, interact with entrepreneurship experts
Curriculum
Have you been selected? Great! Now fasten your seatbelts and travel with us for the next 12 months. The BUILD program offers extensive support to new graduates and early-stage start-ups with a chance to get grant amount of Rs.10,00,000 in the BUILD 5.0 finals.
Feb - April 2026
Applications submission closes
April 2026
Team selection
May – June 2026
BUILD bootcamp and regional pitch competitions
July 2026
Boeing immersion and BUILD Finals
July – December 2026
Extended Support
Apply today!
Ready for take-off? To ensure a smooth boarding into the BUILD programme, just select the partner incubator in your region via the links below, fill out the form on their website and submit your idea.
Applications open on February 3 and close on April 4, 2026.
If your application is selected, you will hear from us in April 2026.
Partner incubators
For the fifth year in a row, we are proud to partner with seven of India’s best startup incubators. Spread across the whole of the country, they provide equal opportunity to India’s thinkers, builders and innovators.
Grid 1: IIT Delhi, New Delhi
Locations
Delhi NCR, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand
Facilitator
FITT, IIT Delhi
Grid 2: IIT, Gandhinagar
Locations
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat
Facilitator
IIEC IIT - Gandhinagar
Grid 3: IIT, Bombay, Mumbai
Locations
Maharashtra, Goa
Facilitator
SINE, IIT Bombay
Grid 4: IISC, Bangalore
Locations
Karnataka
Facilitator
FSID, IISC
Grid 5: IIT Madras, Chennai
Locations
Tamil Nadu, Kerala
Facilitator
IIT Madras Incubation Cell
Grid 6: T Hub, Hyderabad
Locations
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh
Facilitator
T - Hub, Hyderabad
Grid 7: KIIT, Bhubaneswar
Locations
Bihar, Chhattisgarah, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Sikkim
Facilitator
TBI, KIIT
Questions
For more information on the program and for any queries download the FAQs here – or reach out to nanditha.aroor@boeing.com
If you are a student graduating in 2026, select the region in which your college is located. If your team includes students from multiple colleges or regions, please choose a region where most of your team attends college
If you are a start-up, choose the region where you live and work.
Yes! We encourage you to apply. Applying is simple and we are looking for teams that are passionate about solving real-life problems. Problems that can be solved in innovative ways that may be related to one of our themes.
We focus on two key questions:
- What problem are you trying to solve and how?
- Why should we work with your team?
To help your application stand out:
- Respect the word limit for the application.
- Be clear and concise.
- Avoid the marketing language; Demonstrate a strong understanding of the problem.
- Explain why you chose this problem, how you plan to address it and what differentiates your team.
- Tell us what motivates you to solve the problem.
Uniqueness of the idea is not as important as your approach. We are open to working with multiple teams addressing similar problems.
Yes. Links to videos or demo websites that substantiate your application/entry are permitted. However, links that are added just to fill more space and have no correlation with the application will not be counted.
No. Applying to BUILD is free, there are no fees for the coursework program. Limited travel support will be provided for teams selected for workshop. Day-to-day expenses may be borne by participants.
Yes. We are looking to work with pre-seed / early-stage startups to develop their business skills. Typically, such startups are in the conceptual stage and have no funding, no revenue, no Minimum Viable Product (or only the outlines of one), and limited customer validation.
Selected teams will receive learning opportunities and access to experienced professionals from the Indian startup ecosystem. Resources will be provided to help refine business propositions and strengthen investor pitches. Teams will also compete with peers.
While BUILD does not guarantee funding or a fixed number of winners, high-performing teams will have the opportunity to win ₹10 lakh in grant funding, to be used at the team’s discretion.
The regional boot camp will run for three to four days (details may vary by region). Full in-person participation is required. The program will conclude with a pitch presentation to a jury, which may require a full day.
Selected teams may also travel to Bengaluru for one to two days to participate in Boeing Innovation Day, where final pitches will be presented at the Boeing campus. Teams are expected to take full ownership of refining their pitches ahead of the competition.
No. We are looking to work with you, and the team, and not on the idea itself. Submitting more than one application is counterproductive.
No. BUILD is not a recruitment program. However, it offers valuable networking opportunities and a platform to demonstrate your team’s passion, innovation and business acumen.
Some dates will be finalized closer to program milestones. Please refer to the published timeline for the most up-to-date information.
Of course! We are looking to work with a diverse range of teams. But we do look for how well your team’s qualifications fit your idea.