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

How Enterprises can leverage the power of Open LLMs and enhance Business Value

Featured Article: Author: Raghavendra Prasad, JPMorgan With the advent of ChatGPT and several Open LLMs in the last few months, most of the business leaders have been pondering on how their enterprises can leverage these technologies to not only enhance customer experience across their products and services but as well as drive efficiencies & innovation […]

IIT Delhi Offers Free Online Course on AI

IIT Delhi is offering a free online 12-week programme on Artificial Intelligence with a certificate on completion. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi is inviting registrations from those who would like to enrol for a 12-week long free online course on Artificial Intelligence. This programme will be offered on the National Programme on Technology Enhanced […]

HCM Decision Making powered by Talent Sciences

Talent Science is the business capability of using advanced data analysis techniques and predictive models to drive HCM decision making. It calls for a logical connection between decisions about people, HR program investments and strategic business outcomes. This can form a backbone of human resource function of all organizations independent of the sector in which it operates. […]

A Framework for Analytics & AI Value Realization

We’re living in times of a great data paradox. One side of the paradox is the explosive growth of data in and around us. Here are some facts reported in IDC’s Global Data Sphere to corroborate this: – 59 Zettabytes – total volume of data processed in the year 2020– 26% CAGR – the forecasted […]

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

3AI Digital Library