The Foundery Opens Cohort 2: The Search For India's Next Generation Of Entrepreneurs Begins

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India: The Foundery has opened applications for Cohort 2 of its 90-day residential venture build, sharpening its search for people who have already demonstrated the ability to build, whether teams, products, categories, communities or businesses and are now ready to create something of their own.

Founded by Kishore Biyani, Nikhil Kamath and Ronnie Screwvala, The Foundery is a venture builder that creates new companies alongside the entrepreneurs who will run them. Cohort 2 will begin on 15 January 2027 at The Foundery Sanctum in Alibaug, bringing a new group of co-founders into an intensive 90-day build environment.

The Foundery does not begin with a pitch competition or require founders to arrive with a fully formed business plan. Co-founders explore opportunities from The Foundery’s Idea Vault and are matched around experience, strengths, conviction and category fit. From there, they build moving from thesis to product, consumer validation and an operating business, with capital, practitioners, operators and shared infrastructure around them from the start.

The model reflects the way companies increasingly get built today. Product, consumer insight, brand, distribution, technology, culture and capital rarely move in a neat sequence; a decision in one area can quickly reshape another. The Foundery is designed to bring those disciplines together around the entrepreneur, rather than leaving founders to assemble them one piece at a time.

Ronnie Screwvala, Co-founder, The Foundery, said, “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.”

Cohort 1: From Thesis to 18 Companies in 90 Days

The first cohort put that model to work. Over 90 days in Alibaug, matched co-founders moved from early theses to 18 companies ready to face investors at The Foundery FWD in Mumbai in July 2026.

The residency brought founders into close proximity with 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 — bringing perspectives across consumer behaviour, leadership, design, capital, culture, media and company-building into the room.

At The Foundery FWD, the 18 companies generated more than Rs. 550 crore in non-binding expressions of investment interest, with indicated valuations of over Rs. 1,400 crore. For businesses that had begun taking shape only months earlier, it was an early signal of investor conviction in both the companies and the model behind them.

The work has continued well beyond the residency. Cohort 1 companies are now moving full steam toward market, with launches planned through the remainder of 2026 as founders continue building products, teams, distribution and go-to-market plans.

Cohort 2 builds on that foundation, bringing the same concentration of people, capital, expertise and infrastructure around a new set of co-founders — while raising the bar on the kind of entrepreneurial experience and operating muscle entering the room.

Kishore Biyani, Co-founder, The Foundery, said, “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.”

Nikhil Kamath, Co-founder, The Foundery, said, “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.”

About The Foundery

A venture builder that forges entrepreneurs into co-founders and builds companies with them from the ground up. Every co-founder is matched with an idea from our Idea Vault, aligned with their strengths, experience, and conviction. Over a 90-day venture build at The Foundery Sanctum in Alibaug, they move from thesis to operating company, backed by capital, operators, mentors, and the execution infrastructure needed to build from day zero.