NIDHI-Seed Support System (NIDHI-SSS) seed fund of Rs 5 crores to startups incubated under Zone Startups India

Zone Startups India is enabling a Department of Science and Technology (DST) seed fund support system for promising startups with a corpus of Rs 5 crore under the scheme National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations – Seed Support System (NIDHI-SSS)” of the DST.

The Rs 5 crores fund will provide financial assistance for select startups incubated at Zone Startups India that have promising ideas, innovations and technologies.

Seven startups were selected to participate in a day-long pitching round in front of a panel of esteemed jury members. They were trained through a one-on-one mentoring session by Rupak Shah, CEO, LearnAur.com   Evaluation of startups is based on key parameters – team, customer value proposition, technology, market size & dynamics, entry barriers, competition, revenue model, profitability, future dependency on funding, potential to exit and overall impact creation.

Says Hemant Gupta, Managing Director, Zone Startups India, “The NIDHI- SSS  seed fund will help our startups for their early-stage funding requirements which will help them to raise further funds and to scale up. The process of being mentored and making a pitch to an esteemed jury adds value to the startups in their growth journey.”

 He adds “ Startups at a growth phase need funds for product development, testing and trial, test marketing, professional consultancy, IPR, and manpower. This funding helps startups accelerate their growth to the next phase.  From idea to concept to market is a challenging process, right mentoring and funding at the right time is often the game-changer for the startup”