Bengaluru Deep-Tech Residency

Variance is launching a 30-day deep-tech residency in Bengaluru from 18 September to 18 October 2026 for 14 founders, covering housing, meals, workspace, a stipend, and AI and cloud credits from Anthropic, AWS, Azure, and Fireworks AI, with no fee and no equity taken. The program ends with a technical Demo Day on 19 October, and Variance says it makes no claim on residents' companies, inventions, code, or research. Variance founder Yug Gupta also outlined six AI-for-science startup ideas spanning drug discovery to photonics.

All expenses covered Live at the house with meals and a permanent workspace covered for all thirty days. Fourteen deep-tech founders live and build in Bengaluru.Thirty days focused on one technical breakthrough.Housing, credits, stipend, and workspace are all covered. A 3D printer, prototyping tools, electronics equipment, and support for fabrication. Founders, researchers, and operators join when their experience can unblock the work. AI and cloud credits across Anthropic, AWS, Azure, Fireworks AI, and others. Money for the month, for the things we cannot plan for you. No fee and no equity. You keep the company, the invention, and the IP. The month ends with a technical Demo Day on 16 October. Show what changed, not a polished pitch. Co-founder and General Partner, 1517 Fund Founder, Z Fellows Co-founder and CEO, Razorpay General Partner, Y Combinator Former Applied Evals Lead, OpenAI Co-founder and CEO, Markov Robotics Co-founder and CEO, AGI Inc Partner, Lightspeed India Partner, South Park Commons Head of Enterprise Infrastructure Services, MassMutual Robotics and Hardware Ecosystem Builder Associate Professor of Engineering, Brown Professor of Bioelectronics, Sant’Anna Computer Science faculty, USC Head of ETI, Cloudflare Professor of Computer Science, Emeritus, Stanford Founder and Managing Partner, Navam Capital Founder and CEO, collinear Founder, AletheiaMind · Venture Partner, iKoMatch Small rooms, ambitious builders, and real work shipped together. India does not lack people capable of building difficult things. What is missing are places organized around their work. A robotics founder should not have to find a house, a lab, compute, collaborators, and technical help one piece at a time. Variance is our attempt to build one such place. Fourteen builders will live together for a month and work on one technical breakthrough. We will cover their room, meals, workspace, a stipend, credits, and access to a hardware lab. Mentors will be close when the work needs them. We are building this because we want the next deep-tech companies from India to have a serious place to begin. If an important company, experiment, or piece of technology moves forward because the right people shared this house, the month will have mattered. Yes. There is no application fee, program fee, or equity. Housing, meals, workspace, and the program are covered. Deep-tech founders and researchers already working on a hard technical problem. A prototype, research result, or other proof of work matters more than credentials. Yes. Solo founders and small founding teams can apply. Each person must be able to spend the full month in the house. It stays yours. Variance takes no equity and makes no claim on the company, invention, code, or research you produce. 18 September to 18 October 2026 in Bengaluru. The residency is full-time and in person. Residents show what changed during the month at a technical Demo Day on 19 October. The goal is evidence of progress, not a polished pitch. From Variance Yug Gupta outlines six AI for science startup ideas, from drug discovery to photonics, and the experimental evidence Variance wants founders to build. Yug Gupta on deep tech in India, how AI changes the first experiment, and why Variance gives young founders the resources to turn ideas into evidence.