Venture Center

NIDHI seed support aims to financially assist promising startups, enabling them to progress from innovative ideas to a stage where they can attract angel/Venture capitalist investments or seek loans from financial institutions, acting as a bridge between development and commercialization of innovative technologies/products/services.

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Eligibility criteria

  • Incubatee should be a registered company in India

  • Incubatee has to be an Indian start-up. This support is not meant for Indian Subsidiaries of MNCs/foreign companies. Persons holding Overseas Citizens of India (OCI), Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) would be considered as Indian citizens for the purpose of this scheme.

  • The share holding by Indian promoters in the incubate start up should be at least 51%.

 

Additionally,

  • There must be at-least one dedicated entrepreneur involved in the venture

  • There must be a formal business plan

  • The idea and team should be technically sound

  • 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

  • The team should show potential and credibility for raising money in future

  • The venture must be registered as a private limited company

  • The amount of funding requested must be less than Rs 100 lakh

  • The entrepreneur(s) must be willing to share equity in the venture

  • The applicant must be or willing to be resident incubatee of Venture Center before investment

 

Typical terms for seed funding

  • Selected start-up should be/become a resident incubatee of Venture Center and should have completed three months of residency at Venture Center at the time of seed fund investment.

  • Investment mode: Equity ownership in a private limited company

  • Investment amount: Up to 100 lakh

  • BoD representation: 1 Board Nominee Director and/or observer of Venture Center

  • Reporting: Bi-annual presentation to SEED Fund committee + Annual financials/MIS

 

To assess your eligibility for the NIDHI SSS Fund application, consider the following key factors:

  • 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.)?