Humane Entrepreneurship Program Opens Applications
Humane World for Animals India has opened applications for the sixth cohort of its Humane Entrepreneurship Program, and the window closes September 10. The announcement calls HEP a mentorship program dedicated exclusively to plant-based food innovation. The program’s own site lists next-generation materials and non-animal testing alongside food, and the alum it picked to vouch for the program in that same announcement makes plant-based dog food.
HEP runs one-day in-person bootcamps in metros including Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi, followed by a virtual sprint with weekly mentoring, and closes with a Demo Day where founders pitch investors and compete for prize money from Humane World for Animals India. Furrmate, the plant-based dog food brand founded by Paras Jain, is the previous-cohort company the announcement quotes. It has since joined ProVeg Incubator’s Fast-track To Impact spring cohort, which is roughly the trajectory the program advertises.
What the program actually asks for
The eligibility requirements are looser than the announcement spells out. HEP’s FAQ puts applicants at pre-seed with nothing raised yet, and says market validation is not necessary. Company registration is not required to apply at all. Solo founders qualify, team members can sit anywhere in the world, and non-Indian founders are eligible provided the venture is registered in India or planning to be, with India as the primary consumer market.
What the program does want is a prototype that goes past a concept note, plus a landing page and a top-level business model covering value proposition, customer and market size. Participation is currently free for selected startups, though founders should budget for travel at least twice, once for a bootcamp and once for Demo Day.
The number behind the announcement
Mudra Parekh, a specialist with the program at Humane World for Animals India, pointed to reports of more than 113 plant-based food startups operating in the country. That figure traces to GFI India’s State of the Industry report, which counted about 113 startups active across plant-based, fermented and cultivated proteins in a second wave running from 2021 to 2023. GFI’s own wording is “about 113,” and the count was never plant-based food alone. Since 2020, HEP has worked with 27 startups, and the program names Promeat, Phyx44, Eori, Demolish Foods, Nomou and Oatey among its past participants.
Applications run through the program’s site, and the FAQ says applicants hear back within one to two weeks.
Founders working in next-generation materials or non-animal testing sit in the most ambiguous position here. Both sectors still appear on HEP’s site, and Parekh’s own quote looks ahead to materials innovation in fashion, while several FAQ entries describe a food-only program and the published timeline still carries 2025 dates. Anyone building outside human food has until September 10 to ask the program directly rather than assume the answer is no.
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