Commerce Ministry notifies Rs 945 crore seed fund for startups

3AI February 2, 2021

DPIIT said that preference would be given to startups offering solutions in sectors including social impact, waste management, water management, financial inclusion, education, agriculture, food processing, biotechnology, healthcare, energy, mobility, defence, space, railways, oil and gas, textiles, etc.

The government has approved the Rs 945-crore Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) for the period 2021-25 to offer early-stage funding to startups for “proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialization,” implementing body Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said in its notification. Startups across sectors registered with the DPIIT and incorporated not more than two years ago at the time of applying for the scheme will be eligible for securing capital. The funding will be disbursed through selected incubators assisted by the central government or state governments.

“We are on course to implement the scheme wef 1 April ‘21,” DPIIT Joint Secretary Anil Agrawal tweeted on Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier this month announced the seed fund at the Startup India’s international summit Prarambh. In his address, PM Modi had said that the government is taking steps to ensure that there is no shortage of capital for startups and that the government will also help startups to raise debt capital ahead by providing the guarantee.

Apart from the two-year incorporation window, DPIIT said that preference would be given to startups offering solutions in sectors including social impact, waste management, water management, financial inclusion, education, agriculture, food processing, biotechnology, healthcare, energy, mobility, defence, space, railways, oil and gas, textiles, etc. Also, eligible startups should not have received over Rs 10 lakh of monetary support under any other Central or State Government scheme and that founders should have at least 51 per cent stake at the time of application to the incubator for the scheme.

The selected incubators will disburse up to Rs 20 lakhs as grant to startups for their validation of proof of concept, or prototype development, or product trials. This grant will be disbursed in milestone-based installments that can be related to the development of prototype, product testing, building a product ready for market launch, etc. Further, up to Rs 50 lakhs will be offered to startups for market entry, commercialization, or scaling up through convertible debentures or debt or debt-linked instruments.

The government also announced eligibility criteria for incubators assisted by the central government or state governments to participate in the scheme that included at least two years of operability on the date of applying for the scheme, capacity to seat at least 25 individuals, at least five startups undergoing incubation at the time of application of the scheme. The scheme will be executed and monitored by an Experts Advisory Committee (EAC) to be set-up by DPIIT. EAC will evaluate incubators to provide grants of up to Rs 5 crore in milestone-based three or more installments.

Picture from freepik.com

Revenue Growth Management in the New E-Commerce-led Phygital World

Author: Imran Saeed, Vice President and Global Head CPG, Course5 Intelligence (LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/imran-saeed-608a3b1) ‘Phygital’ is a portmanteau of ‘physical’ and ‘digital’ and symbolizes the seamless relationship between the two channels. It takes the best elements from both and merges them to create an entirely new customer retail experience. Though this does bring in a […]

BigBasket sues a bootstrapped startup Daily Basket for using the word basket in its name

Founder of Daily Basket Ramesh Vel has launched a website – “bbisabully”, calling out the billion dollar startup. Vel wrote on the website that BigBasket is fighting with a mere two person startup and said that it doesn’t have the ‘mighty power & money’ BigBasket has. BigBasket sent Daily Basket a cease and desist letter, […]

Cloud Neutrality

A multibillion-dollar, privately-owned infrastructure is now essential to the modern internet economy. That should freak you out. WE SPENT A lot of years talking about net neutrality—the idea that the companies that provide access to the internet shouldn’t unfairly block, slow down, or otherwise interfere with traffic even if that traffic competes with their services. But there’s […]

Digiboxx plans to hire 5,000 engineers

Digiboxx is also aiming to have 10 million users in the next three years Digiboxx has started offering up to 20 gigabyte (GB) of free online storage in which an user can store and share file size of up to 2 GB New Delhi: Online file storage and sharing services startup Digiboxx on Tuesday said […]

India's largest platform and marketplace for GCC & AI leaders and professionals

3AI Digital Library