AssisTech Foundation (ATF), an incubator and accelerator program focused on supporting and promoting innovative disability technology startups, has set up a seed fund as a part of the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) that was launched by Indian government’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
As a part of the scheme, the Bengaluru-based ATF will deploy capital of Rs 5 crore ($580,000) from the Startup India Seed Fund (SISF) across 32 early-stage startups that are building assistive technology (AT) offerings to empower persons with disabilities through learning and livelihood opportunities.
ATF intends to provide seed capital for innovation, prototyping, and market entry to such companies. The chosen startups could apply for grant, equity or debt, with grants up to Rs 20 lakh and equity investment up to Rs 50 lakh.
“This dedicated fund will provide much-needed early-stage capital to AT start-ups, enabling them to validate ideas, build prototypes, and accelerate market entry,” said Prateek Madhav, chief executive and cofounder of AssisTech Foundation.
“To apply under the scheme, a startup must be DPIIT-recognized and incorporated within the last 2 years. It should not have received more than Rs 10 lakh in monetary support from any other Central/State government scheme and have at least 51% Indian promoter shareholding at the time of application,” ATF said in a statement.
The development comes as a part of the SISFS scheme launched in 2021 by government with an outlay of Rs 945 crore (nearly $110 million) over a period of four years. Deployed through DPIIT-recognized incubators, the scheme aimed to provide financial assistance to early-stage startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry, and commercialization.
More than Rs 611 crore of the capital reportedly has already been deployed across more than 160 incubators as of December 2023, according to available data. These include IIM‑Lucknow Enterprise Incubation Centre (Noida), IIT Kanpur’s Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, Amity Innovation Incubator (Noida), Atal Incubation Centre – BIMTECH (Gautam Buddha Nagar) and Shiv Nadar AIC Research Foundation among others.
