National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) – Seed Support System
The Entrepreneurship Development Center (‘Venture Center’ ) is hosting a seed fund with a corpus of Rs 2 crore under the scheme “Seed Support System for Start-ups in Incubators” of the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science & Technology.
The Seed Support is for incubatees (physical resident units within STEP/TBI). The funds are meant for early stage funding for indigenous ideas and technologies requiring up-scaling and related work.
Incubatees of Venture Center are encouraged to contact Venture Center for further information.
Quantum of financial assistance to the incubated entrepreneur:
- Up to Rs. 50 lakhs
Broad Areas to be covered under the financial assistance include:
- Product development
- Testing and trials
- Test Marketing
- Mentoring
- Professional Consultancy ( To attract Professors of institutions to work with small firms)
- IPR issues
- Man power for day to day operations
- Any other area as deemed necessary and recommended by the Management Committee.
The Seed fund emphasizes:
- Alignment with Venture Center’s Focus areas
- Product offerings (vs service offerings)
- IP-rich enterprises
- Strong knowledge components in enterprises
The seed fund is only for
- Companies with minimum 51% ownership by Indian nationals
- Companies ready to be incubated at Ventuer Center
Here is a list of make/break criteria for applicants:
- There must be at-least one dedicated entrepreneur involved in the venture
- There must be a formal business plan
- The venture and the team must have high ethical & professional standards
- The venture must have a strong technology/knowledge component
- EHS requirements must be met
- Key Proof-of-Concept must be demonstrated & must be reproducible
- The venture must be registered as a private limited company, or must be in the process of registration
- The amount of funding requested must be less than Rs 50 lakh
- The entrepreneur(s) must be willing to share equity in the venture
- The seed funds requested must be for activities such as product development, prototyping, scale-up, developing IP portfolio, test marketing, trials, certification, testing
Applications for the seed fund will be reviewed based on criteria such as (but not limited to):
- Is amount of funding requested enough to reach critical milestone?
- Does the venture have a clear, potentially significant/singular value proposition
- How big/fast growing is the potential market?
- Are target customers clearly identified?
- How credible is the technology? (Is PoC credible in the opinion of subject-matter experts?)
- Are there regulatory/certification/policy risks?
- What are the sources of sustainable competitive advantage (eg. novelty, patentability, etc.)?
- What is the quality of the business plan (revenue model, product roadmap, market segments, etc.)?
Typical terms for seed funding:
- Investment mode: Equity ownership in a private limited company
- Investment amount: Up to Rs 50 lakh
- BoD representation: 1 BoD seat and 1 Board observer seat
- Promoter/founder stakes: Vesting requirements
- Reporting: Bi-annual presentation to seed committee + Quarterly/annual financials