Apply now for NEC Ignite Grant 2023 (India)

The NEC-Ignite startup Grant is powered by North East Council (NEC), Shillong with IITG TIDF BioNEST as the implementing partner for the grant. The funding support will act as the “bridging fund” to get pass from the stage of startups when their innovation has freshly graduated from Ideation to POC and they require “bridge money” to cross the “valley of death” where they become fund crunched. The NEC-Ignite startups, in addition to the in-house funding support, will be encouraged and mentored to apply and get external funding support from Government of India (GOI) and Private equity at later part of their entrepreneurial journey at BioNEST.

Thrust Areas

Project proposals should come under following thrust areas:

• Healthcare
• Agritech
• Foodtech
• Horticulture
• Waste management
• Clean/Renewable energy
• Industrial Biotechnology
• IoT, AI/ML, augmented reality/VR, blockchain powered solutions in healthcare, agritech, energy, fintech etc.

Preferences will be given for the following

• Women entrepreneurs
• Technology commercialization plan that can result in manufacturing jobs and employment for the region
• Professionals with relevant work/ industry experience
• Applicants with a history/ track record of invention/tinkering solutions etc or volunteering with organizations to address/solve problems.

Funding Information

• Grant size: Upto INR 10L of grant support/start-up.
• Duration of grant 12 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• The applicant company should be registered in any of the eight NE state only; Arunanchal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
• Proposal needs to define a technology solution to a well-defined problem.
• The product proposed should be innovative/ novel and patentable.
• Minimum POC (Proof-of-Concept) should be competed for the product idea proposed.
• The startup should be ready to incubate physically at IIT Guwahati BioNEST throughout the grant duration. No Virtual Incubation will be allowed for the NECIgnite grantees.
• The projects relating to pure academic research are not eligible.
• Eligibility for Project Leader/Applicant
  • Every project proposal will need to identify a Project Leader (PL) and an Applicant/ Grantee.
  • The Project Leader will be a single individual who will take responsibility for executing the project.
  • PL is required to be at least 18 years of age as on the date of call for applications.
  • PL is required to be Indian Citizen. An Indian citizen is defined as one who is in possession of a government approved proof of nationality such as a valid passport, voter’s id etc.
  • PL cannot be pursuing a long-term academic/research project (like doctoral students) with significant obligations during the project duration.
  • PL cannot be an employee of an ineligible company with concurrent commitments during the project duration.
  • PL has to pursue the NEC-Ignite project or startup full time with no other concurrent commitments during the project duration.
  • If the applicant is not the founder/co-founder of the startup, an authorization letter duly signed and stamped by authorized signatory of the company needs to submitted, allowing the applicant to submit the proposal.
• Eligibility criteria for the startup company
  • The applicant company should be registered under the Indian Companies Act, 2013 and the type can be:
    • Private Limited Company (PLC)
    • Limited Liability Company (LLP)
  • The applicant startup company should not exceed 5 years from Date of Incorporation at the time of announcing of a call for applications.
  • At least 51% of the company should be owned by Indian citizen.
  • If an applicant company, in which any promoter holding more than or equal to 20% of the shares, is a co-promoter of another ineligible company or a partner in another ineligible PLC/LLP, then the applicant will not be eligible.
  • Wants to develop the prototype for a new product, for which they may have not received similar kind of support.
  • Applicant Company should have annual turnover not exceeding Rs. 20L for any of the financial year since its inception.
  • IP (if) generated for the applied project should be owned by the applicant the start up.
  • The applicant startup should not have any loans and liability at the time of application.

For more information, visit Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.