Commerce Ministry notifies Rs 945 crore seed fund for startups

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

Chess and AI

“It’s just a machine. It has no consciousness or feelings as we understand them. We have specific connections in our brain that make us react according to the circumstances, the situations we are experiencing. We interpret them as pleasure, pain and all other kinds of emotions. We would have to invent a new word to […]

Top four focus areas to help you shape a data-driven enterprise

Author: Praveen Reddy, Vice President (Digital – data, analytics, and cloud) | Genpact As we navigate the world of data, some significant trends are manifesting with respect to data ownership and utilization. There are multiple triggers for these trends – ever-rising complexity of data, lack of proper intelligence concerning data assets, need for accelerated digital transformation, […]

Salesforce embraces the public cloud with Hyperforce

Salesforce is letting CIOs choose where they run its software, easing compliance with data protection and data sovereignty laws. Salesforce.com President and COO Bret Taylor believes the SaaS vendor has made “probably the most significant technological shift” since its CRM platform first launched 21 years ago. But Taylor wasn’t talking about the company’s agreement to acquire […]

Microsoft Announces Limited Access to its Custom Neural Voice

Microsoft announced limited access to its neural text-to-speech AI called Custom Neural Voice. The service allows developers to create custom synthetic voices. . The Custom Neural Voice is a Text-to-Speech (TTS) feature of Speech in Azure Cognitive Services that allows users to create a one-of-a-kind customized synthetic voice for their brand. Since the preview last year in September, the […]

India's largest platform for AI & Analytics leaders, professionals & aspirants