StartupFeed Quick Take
- The AKTU Innovation Hub took 33 startups, picked from about 300 entries, to UPITS 2026 in Greater Noida.
- About 500 B.Tech, M.Tech, Pharmacy and MBA students from AKTU institutes visited the fair over five days.
- UPITS 2026 closed on September 29 with 4,400 business deals worth Rs 6,500 crore and a footfall of 5,98,693.
The Innovation Hub at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University took 33 startups to UPITS 2026 in Greater Noida, which closed on September 29.
The AKTU Innovation Hub picked the 33 firms from about 300 entries, the university said. That is roughly a one-in-nine selection rate.
UPITS 2026 was the fair’s fourth edition, held from September 25 to 29. It drew a footfall of 5,98,693.
The show logged 4,400 business deals worth Rs 6,500 crore. Estimated business at the fair was about Rs 15,500 crore.
What AKTU’s startups showed at UPITS
The 33 firms sat in the Innovation Hub pavilion. Their work spanned AI, farm tech, health tech and food processing.
One was HexPRs LLP, a student startup from ITS Engineering College in Greater Noida, and it showed FertoBot, a soil-reading tool for farmers.
KIPM College in Gorakhpur sent two firms: RxMantra, run by Billionbridge Global, and NV Engineering, both backed by the KIPM Innovators Foundation.
Startups from the IPEC business incubator in Ghaziabad also took part. Three IPEC teams pitched at the CM YUVA Pitch Tank.
The CM YUVA Pitch Tank is a state contest for young founders, held alongside the trade show.
About 500 students from AKTU institutes walked the halls, drawn from B.Tech, M.Tech, Pharmacy and MBA courses.
UPITS 2026 closed with Rs 6,500 crore in deals
UPITS 2026 ran at the India Expo Centre and Mart in Greater Noida, under the theme “Ultimate Sourcing Begins Here.”
Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah opened the show on September 25, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath alongside him.
The first UPITS was held in 2023, and Uttar Pradesh has run it every year since.
Six countries partnered this edition: Japan, Russia, Singapore, Vietnam, Austria and Belarus. The halls covered about 1.1 lakh square metres.
More than 2,400 firms took part, with buyers from over 90 countries. The show spanned 17 sectors.
The fair closed on September 29 with Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh present. He summed up the five days for reporters.
“A footfall of 10 to 15 lakh is, in itself, a mark of immense success. B2B business worth approximately Rs 20,000 crore was generated.”
Giriraj Singh, Union Textiles Minister, Government of India. From his remarks to the media at the UPITS 2026 closing, September 29, 2026.
That footfall split into 1,74,990 business buyers and 4,23,703 general visitors.
| Measure | UPITS 2026 total |
|---|---|
| Footfall over five days | 5,98,693 |
| B2B and business meetings | 41,500 |
| Business deals (MoUs) | 4,400 |
| Value of deals | Rs 6,500 crore |
| Estimated business | Rs 15,500 crore |
What the AKTU Innovation Hub does for founders
The AKTU Innovation Hub is the state’s main startup body, set up under the UP Startup Policy 2020.
It runs on a hub-and-spoke plan, linking smaller incubators in colleges across Uttar Pradesh.
Its stated aim is to move student ideas from the lab to the market. AKTU houses the hub in Lucknow.
For a founder in a UP college, the hub is a route to buyers and investors. UPITS gave the 33 firms that direct access.
That access is the real prize here. A stall at a national fair is hard for a young firm to book alone.
Uttar Pradesh has more than 96 lakh small and mid-sized businesses, called MSMEs. Those firms are the buyers and partners a college startup can sell to.
In September, AKTU also set new funding tiers for student ideas. Its 2026-31 policy gives Rs 1 lakh for a student project, Rs 50,000 for grassroots work and Rs 20,000 for a school-level idea.
In the same month, AKTU opened a Kalam Patent Centre. It offers free patent help to students, faculty and startups.
The university also launched an Innovation Hub UP portal. It puts the incubation centres of its colleges on one online platform.
Did AKTU win a Best Stall award?
AKTU said its Innovation Hub pavilion won a Best Stall award at UPITS 2026. The claim rests on the university’s own statement.
The university said two of its officials, Dr Mahip Singh and Vandana Sharma, received the award.
The fair hands out stall awards by hall and by theme, so more than one pavilion can be named a winner.
One such prize is on record from another source. The Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission won Best Performing Stall in Hall No. 7.
That mission’s pavilion ran live demonstrations of 16 skills. Its assistant director, M.K. Singh, accepted the award.
StartupFeed could not confirm AKTU’s award from an outside source. The editor should check it before treating it as settled.
What this means for you: If you run an early startup at a UP technical college, the AKTU Innovation Hub is a way to reach buyers and investors. Watch for its next open call and apply with a market-ready product, not just an idea.
StartupFeed Insight
The headline number here is not the award. It is the ratio: 33 stalls for about 300 applicants. That gap shows demand for market access far outstrips the seats the Innovation Hub can offer at one fair. The fix is more shows and more slots, not more press notes. Founders in tier-2 UP towns, Gorakhpur and Ghaziabad among them, gain the most, since they rarely reach Greater Noida buyers on their own. Expect AKTU to widen the next UPITS pavilion or book a second stall before the 2027 edition, if the 2026 deal flow holds.
By Soumya Verma, Senior Correspondent
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