SR Innovation Exchange (SRiX) is hosting a seed fund with a corpus of Rs 5 crore under the scheme “National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations - Seed Support System (NIDHI-SSS)" of the Department of Science and Technology.

The basic idea of NIDHI 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.

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%.

Selection Criteria:

Here is a list of make/break criteria for applicants:

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

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

The venture must be registered as a private limited company

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

The applicant must be or willing to be resident incubatee of SRiX before investment

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.)?