Piyush Goyal launches Startup India Seed Fund Scheme
21 Apr 2021
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Union minister for commerce and industry Piyush Goyal on Tuesday launched the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) with a corpus . of Rs945 crore.
The fund will provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialisation.
The corpus fund of Rs945 crore will be divided over the next 4 years for providing seed funding to eligible startups through eligible incubators across India. The scheme is expected to support an estimated 3,600 startups through 300 incubators.
Speaking on the occasion, Goyal said that the SISFS will secure seed funding, inspire innovation, support transformative ideas, facilitate implementation, and start startup revolution. He said that this scheme will create a robust startup ecosystem, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns of India, which are often deprived of adequate funding.
The minister said that he would like to especially encourage innovators from rural areas to come forward and benefit from this scheme.
Grants of up to Rs5 crore will be provided to eligible incubators selected by an expert committee. They will be offered grants of up to Rs20 lakh for validation of proof of concept, prototype development or product trials. Furthermore, funding of up to Rs50 lakh will be provided to startups for market entry, commercialisation or scaling up through convertible debentures or debt-linked instruments.
Goyal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to launch the scheme within three months even as he underlined that the “times are tough, but our resolve is strong, and never before has it become more important for us to empower our startups”.
