The Tamil Nadu government has recently decided to fund startups and incubators anywhere between ₹25 lakh and ₹50 lakh each under the Tamil Nadu Startup Seed Grant Fund (TNSSGF) as part of implementing the Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Policy 2018-2023.
According to the guidelines framed by the State government recently for the TNSSGF, which has a corpus fund of ₹50 crore, the seed funding is normally offered up to a maximum of ₹25 lakh. “In exceptional cases, for extraordinary projects, the funding may go up to a maximum of ₹50 lakh with the approval of the high-level committee,” a senior official told The Hindu .
The funding by the government to ensure adequate resources to strengthen the startup ecosystem would support projects that develop a prototype of a working model to demonstrate proposed technology solutions.
The grants would also cover hiring technical mentors to aid and assist in prototype creation, manpower for product development, test marketing, testing, certification and trials, among others.
“An application made available online shall be filled and submitted, along with a presentation deck and supporting documents, within the prescribed date. This will be followed by shortlisting through evaluations by the panel and presentations before the TANSEED expert/high-level committee,” the guidelines said. The funding is for a maximum of 24 months in instalments against agreed milestones.
The grants would also support student startups up to a maximum of ₹1 lakh. Students should be enrolled and studying in any of the colleges/universities within Tamil Nadu and should be working on an innovative idea towards a workable prototype.
The Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation Institute is the nodal agency for implementing the Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Policy 2018-2023. One of the policy interventions is providing financial grants to startups and incubators.
