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

Reimagine Business Strategy & Operating Models with AI : The CXO’s Playbook

Author: Sameer Dhanrajani, CEO at AIQRATE advisory & consulting | AI advisor, business builder | Author | Speaker |Columnist| President at 3AI | Ex-CSO: Fractal, Global Business Leader: Cognizant, Country Head: Fidelity National Financial AlphaGo caused a stir by defeating 18-time world champion Lee Sedol in Go, a game thought to be impenetrable by AI […]

New 2D tag with AI authentication to spot counterfeit products Faster & Accurately

The authentication process takes under 3.5 minutes to complete, and involves scanning the tags under an electronic microscope to obtain the PUF pattern, which is sent to the AI-driven software for validation. A new anti-counterfeiting technique uses two dimensional (2D)-material tags along with artificial intelligence (AI)-driven authentication software, and promises to deliver faster, more accurate […]

Future of Work 2.0: Reimagining Work in the Age of Contextual Generative AI

Featured Article Author: Mahadevann Iyerr, MAAVRUS The way we work is changing a lot, and it’s more than just using new technology. As technology improves quickly and more data is created, businesses need to rethink how they do things to stay successful. This change is happening because of AI, the huge amount of data we […]

Impact of AI on Data Anonymization

Featured Article: Author: Mohan Khilariwal, DGM, Data Engineering, Analytics and Data Science, HCL Technologies Data anonymization has become much more critical as we are into the era where data sharing is becoming a necessity in order to serve the customer, new business opportunities, Governments want to take help from the industry to serve its people […]

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

3AI Digital Library