Govt. launched “Startup India Seed Fund Scheme” to provide funding to technology-driven start-ups
Notification F. No. P-38015/5/2020, dated 21-01-2021.
The Central Government has approved the ‘Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS)’ to provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialization. SISFS shall provide financial assistance to startups via corpus of Rs. 945 Crore that will be disbursed through selected incubators across India in 2021-25.
The scheme is sector-agnostic and will support startups across all sectors. The scheme shall have a central common application on Startup India portal for startups and incubators on an ongoing basis. The eligibility criteria for startups to apply under the SISFS are as follows:
- a) Startup must be recognized by DPIIT and incorporated not more than 2 years ago at the time of application. It must have a business idea to develop a product or a service with market fit, viable commercialization, and scope of scaling.
- b) It should be using technology in its core product or service, or business model, or distribution model, or methodology to solve the problem being targeted.
- c) Preference would be given to startups creating innovative solutions in sectors such as social impact, waste management, water management, financial inclusion, education, agriculture, etc.
- d) Startup should not have received more than Rs 10 lakh of monetary support under any other Central or State Government scheme.
- e) Shareholding by Indian promoters in the startup should be at least 51% at the time of application to incubator for the scheme, as per Companies Act, 2013 and SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, 2018.
