Wadhwani Foundation

Funds Wadhwani Foundation, a United States-linked non-profit building entrepreneurship ecosystems and job growth.

Wadhwani Foundation is a private not-for-profit founded in 2001 by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani (India-born US tech entrepreneur), funded by over US $1 billion in founder contributions with a further 80% wealth pledge. Its stated mission is accelerating job growth in emerging economies and enabling millions to earn a family-sustaining wage.

The Foundation runs four initiatives — Entrepreneurship, Skilling, Innovation & Research, and Government Digital Transformation — across India and 15+ countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The vast majority of its programs are direct service delivery: training, advisory, incubator facilitation, and government consulting. The Foundation does not operate as a broad-based grantmaker.

The sole grant-bearing arm is the Wadhwani Innovation Network (WIN), launched in 2024, which provides institutional funding of up to US $1 million per year to six named Centers of Excellence at elite Indian academic institutions (IITs, IISc, C-CAMP), plus US $10 million annually in a joint partnership with AICTE for 100+ higher-education institutes. WIN funds interdisciplinary research-to-commercialization projects in AI, semiconductor tech, quantum computing, bioengineering, healthtech, and synthetic biology. Sub-grant selection is by national jury of experts and is limited to researchers at named partner institutions — it is not an open public call.