The Foundery opens Cohort 2, begins search for India’s next generation of entrepreneurs

The Foundery, the venture builder co-founded by Kishore Biyani, Nikhil Kamath, and Ronnie Screwvala, has opened applications for the second cohort of its 90-day residential venture-building programme, as it looks to bring together people who have demonstrated the ability to build teams, products, businesses, communities or new categories and are now ready to build ventures of their own. 

Cohort 2 will begin on January 15, 2027, at The Foundery Sanctum in Alibaug, where selected co-founders will spend 90 days developing new businesses with access to capital, operators, practitioners and shared infrastructure. 

From idea to operating business in 90 days 

Unlike conventional startup programmes, The Foundery does not require applicants to arrive with a fully formed business plan or compete in a pitch contest. Instead, co-founders explore opportunities from The Foundery’s Idea Vault and are matched based on their experience, strengths, conviction and category fit. 

The entrepreneurs then work through the entire company-building process—from developing a business thesis and building a product to validating it with consumers and creating an operating business. 

The model brings product, consumer insight, branding, distribution, technology, culture and capital together around the entrepreneur from the outset, rather than requiring founders to build each of these capabilities separately. 

“Capital alone has never built anything that lasts. Founders can lose their first year assembling all the pieces they need to get moving. At The Foundery, those pieces are around them from day one, a head start that helps them move faster, get to market sooner and keep pace with how quickly the world is changing,” said Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder, The Foundery. 

First cohort built 18 companies 

The Foundery’s first cohort put the model to test during a 90-day residency in Alibaug, with matched co-founders progressing from early-stage ideas and theses to 18 companies that were presented to investors at The Foundery FWD in Mumbai in July 2026. 

The first cohort brought together entrepreneurs, investors, operators, creators and cultural voices, including Santosh Desai, Rajan Anandan, Aakash Chaudhry, Prasoon Joshi, Garima D. Bahl, Aditya Sehgal, Harsh Mariwala, Diipa Khosla, Rana Daggubati, Jonty Rhodes, Ranveer Singh, Falguni Nayar and Anil Agarwal, among others. 

The 18 companies generated more than ₹550 crore in non-binding expressions of investment interest at The Foundery FWD, with indicated valuations exceeding ₹1,400 crore. 

The companies are now moving towards market, with launches planned through the remainder of 2026 as the founders work on products, teams, distribution and go-to-market strategies. 

Foundery raises the bar for its next cohort 

Cohort 2 will build on the first cohort’s experience, bringing together a new set of co-founders with access to the same concentration of capital, expertise, operators and infrastructure, while placing greater emphasis on entrepreneurial experience and operating capabilities. 

“India is changing fast, and so is its consumer. After three decades of building consumer businesses, one thing I have learnt is that understanding the Indian consumer cannot be inherited as instinct, it has to be relearned continuously. The next generation of entrepreneurs will need to build for where India is going, not where it has been,” said Kishore Biyani, co-founder, The Foundery. 

Nikhil Kamath, co-founder, The Foundery, said the initiative is an attempt to build an ecosystem for consumer brands in India that can eventually scale globally. 

“Everyone in China says ‘ecosystem, ecosystem, ecosystem.’ Foundery is a small attempt at trying to build that for consumer brands in India. It’s not about how many of the 20 brands per batch succeed or what valuations they achieve, but about the fact that, in 10 years, we would have built the rails and the ‘ecosystem’ by attempting to create 200 Indian brands with the potential to sell globally,” he said. 

The Foundery describes itself as a venture builder that works with entrepreneurs to build companies from the ground up. Through its 90-day residential programme, co-founders are matched with ideas from its Idea Vault and work towards turning those ideas into operating businesses, supported by capital, operators, mentors and execution infrastructure.