“IMPACT 2.0” Funding Program for Startups (India)

Proposals are invited from Academic & Research institutions (Faculties from Academic & Research Institutions planning to register a startup in next 3-months) and DPIIT recognized Startups across India for prototyping, testing, validation, scale-up, field testing and pre-commercialization of technology /product development in the field of Intelligent Collaborative Systems (ICS) with application to Energy, Safety, Healthcare, Automotives, Agriculture, Defense and any other relevant domains of national importance to the 2 nd call under the IMPACT program of IPTIF.

IMPACT 2.0 is specially designed to attract and fund startups developing and scaling impactful products and technologies in the above domains. The funding support is available right from prototype stage till market introduction stage and beyond. IMPACT 2.0 is designed as an equity-based funding program for DPIIT recognized startups and to-be-startups from academic and research institutions.

Focus Areas 

• Proposals are invited for validation and market advancement of ICS technologies with applications to energy, safety & other domains
  • Intelligent Collaborative Systems (ICS) for Energy: ICS for Energy creation, Efficiency Enhancement, Grid Integration & Control, Distribution, Transportation, Storage and Conversion
  • Intelligent Collaborative Systems (ICS) for Safety: ICS based Autonomous Systems for Road Safety & heterogeneous traffic; ICS for Predictive health Monitoring of Roads, Bridges, Rails, Dams & public transport systems; Autonomous intervention class systems for railway networks & subsystems; Safety systems for connected and Autonomous vehicle
  • Intelligent Collaborative Systems (ICS) for other domains: ICS based technology solutions addressing challenges in other domains, including but not limited to, Automotives, Defense, Agriculture, Healthcare and any other domains of national importance.

Categories

• Proposals focused on indigenous technology/product development are invited under the below three categories:
  • Category 1: Prototype development, testing and early-stage validation
    • Applicants: Early Stage Startups and Faculties from Academic & Research Institutions planning to register a startup in next 3-months
    • Entry TRL: TRL-3 or above
    • End TRL: TRL- 4-6 (A design-iterated prototype with critical technology components and Bill of Materials (BoM) frozen & undergone limited field testing under real/simulated working environment and ready for applicable safety/quality regulatory certifications)
  • Category 2: Field Validation, Certification and Pilot Market Launch
    • Applicants: Mid-Stage Startups
    • Entry TRL: TRL- 4 & above
    • End TRL: ≥ TRL-7 (A robust product with frozen DFM with extensive field validation, certification and product performance data from real end-user settings along with all applicable regulatory approvals for scale-up manufacturing and market launch)
  • Category 3: Scale-up and Pre-commercialization
    • Applicants: Late-Stage Startups
    • Entry TRL: ≥ TRL-7 – Product is market-launched with initial revenue from sales for at least 1 year
    • End TRL: TRL- 8/9 – Pre-commercialization (Scale up manufacturing and enhanced market penetration and revenue from sales)

Funding Information

• Category 1: Prototype development, testing and early-stage validation
  • Funding: Up to INR 30 Lakhs against Equity
• Category 2: Field Validation, Certification and Pilot Market Launch
  • Funding: Up to INR 50 Lakhs against Equity
• Category 3: Scale-up and Pre-commercialization
  • Funding: Up to INR 100 Lakhs against Equity or Royalty on sales

Duration of Support

• Project duration to be maximum 24 months & Funding support will be based on availability of Funds from NM – ICPS, Department of Science and Technology.

Eligibility Criteria

• Proposals from Academic & R&D Institutions will be considered only with an undertaking of registering a startup within 3 months of receiving the funding support
• Indian Startups registered under Indian Companies Act 2013 and registered with Startup India and having a valid DPIIT registration
• Minimum 51% of the shares of the Company should be held by Indian Citizens holding Indian passport [Indian Citizens do not include Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) holders]
• Minimum entry and endpoint TRLs to be met for all categories
• For Category 2 & Category 3, startups who have received prior equity-linked funding from Institutions, Angel Investors or VCs will be preferred
• For Category-3, revenue from sales of market-launched products is a mandatory requirement. A mix of Equity and Royalty on annual sales shall be considered for Category 3 on a case-to-case basis.

For more information, visit IPTIF.