Deadline: 15-Nov-20
TBI@KEC is hosting a Seed fund 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 incubates (physical resident units within STEP/TBI). The funds are meant for early stage startups to fund for indigenous ideas and technologies requiring up-scaling and related work. The basic idea of seed support is providing financial assistance to potential startups with promising ideas, innovations and technologies. This would enable some of these incubatee startups with innovative ideas/technologies to graduate to a level where they will be able to raise investments from angel/Venture capitalist or they will reach a position to seek loans from commercial banks /financial institutions. Thus, the proposed seed support disbursed by an incubator to an incubatee is positioned to act as a bridge between development and commercialization of innovative technologies/ products/ services in a relatively hassle-free manner.
Broad Areas to be covered under the financial assistance include:
- Product development;
- Testing and trials;
- Test Marketing;
- Mentoring;
- IPR issues;
- Manpower for day to day operations;
- Professional Consultancy (To attract Professors/ Experts of institutions to work with small firms);
- Any other area as deemed necessary and recommended by the Management Committee.
Funding Information
- Investment amount: Maximum Rs.50 lakhs (Avg: 25 lakhs).
Eligibility Criteria
Eligibility Conditions for startups to apply:
- The startup must be or willing to be resident incubatee of TBI@KEC;
- The startup must be a private limited company in India or must be in the process of registration;
- The share holding by Indian promoters in the Startup should be at least 51%. Persons holding Overseas Citizens of India (OCI), Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) would be considered as Indian citizens for the purpose of this scheme;
- This support is not meant for Indian Subsidiaries of MNCs/foreign companies.
Selection Criteria
- There must be one dedicated full-time founder involved in the startup with team in place;
- There must be a formal Business Plan and Pitch Deck;
- The Idea and team should be technically sound for execution;
- Key Proof-of-Concept / Prototype must be demonstrated & must be reproducible;
- The startup must have a strong technology / knowledge component;
- The amount of funding requested must be less than Rs 50 lakhs;
- The founders & team should show potential for sustainability and credibility for raising money in future, if required;
- Environment Health Safety (EHS) requirements must be met and compliances adhered;
- The venture and the team must have high ethical & professional standards.
Applications will also be reviewed based on following criteria (but not limited to):
- Is amount of funding requested enough to reach critical milestone? plan for additional funds and means, if any required
- 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 Prototype/MVP 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.)?
For more information, visit http://www.tbi-kec.org/seedfund-nstedb/