NIDHI-Seed Support System (NIDHI-SSS)

Deshpande Startups is hosting a seed fund with a corpus of Rs 10 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 or technologies to graduate to a level where they will be able to raise investments from angel venture, capitalist or be in a position to seek loans from commercial banks and 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, and services in a relatively hassle-free manner.

Broad Areas to be covered under the financial assistance include:

• Product Development
• Testing and Trials
• Test Marketing
• Mentoring
• Professional Consultancy (To attract Professors of institutions to work with small firms)
• IPR Issues
• Manpower for day-to-day operations
• Any other area as deemed necessary and recommended by the Management Committee