DST funded start-ups see six-fold rise in funding since 2014

Most of them are technology start-ups supported under the DST’s NIDHI programme

Funds disbursed to start-ups supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) jumped over six-fold from 2014-2019, according to an independent report commissioned by the Department. This, in spite of India’s quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) seeing a steady decline from late 2018.

In 2014, there were around 25 supported start-ups that collectively received approximately ₹2.5 crore. In 2019, this had jumped to 150 companies and ₹25 crore. Most of them were technology start-ups supported under the DST’s NIDHI programme.

The DST’s National Science Technology and Entrepreneurship Development Board has been supporting start-ups and small businesss for 38 years. The DST funds Technology Business Incubators (TBI) across the country, which in turn host start-ups.

On average, these start-ups went on to raise an additional ₹381 crore through independent investors. Around 60 investors got independent funding in 2019, up from 45 the previous year, the report noted.

“The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has played a significant role in fostering and nurturing the fledgling start-up ecosystem by steering it through its strong network of incubators through the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board. The last five years have been significant in bringing this to fruition, as is evident from the report,” Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST, said while launching the report.

Overall, nearly 3,681 start-ups are under incubation through a network of 153 incubators created by the DST and 1,992 intellectual property-protected have been reported. Further, in the last five years, cumulative direct employment generation of ₹61,138 crore and economic wealth creation of ₹27,262 crore has taken place.

The TBIs provide office space, physical infrastructure, mentoring support, laboratory facilities, business services, and funding. Agritech and allied services, healthcare and life sciences, IT and IT-enabled services made up nearly half of the start-ups supported. While 50% of the funds that the incubators received were from the DST, 17% were from CSR (corporate social responsibility) kitties, and 4% were from equity exits.