The Technology Development Board (TDB), a statutory body under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, is set to launch a ₹1,000 crore startup fund under a public private partnership model.
The fund will be launched in two phases and will be live in a month. In the first phase, a corpus of ₹400 crore will be set up, of which ₹200 crore will be contributed by a private limited company that has not been named yet. In the later phase, TDB will partner with more companies to raise money for the fund and invest the equal sum of money in tandem with the companies.
Rajesh Pathak, Secretary, TDB told Businessline, “The objective of the fund is to invest in startups across various sectors. The new fund will also invest in early stage startups rather than just the ones which have reached the commercialisation stage, as it has in the past.”
Pathak added that it is beneficial for companies to invest in startups in partnership with TDB as the TDB committee will do the complete evaluation and scrutiny of all the startups that apply for the fund.
The fund is sector agnostic and is looking to invest in startups that aim to solve a problem with strong technical solutions and has a wider use case. The TDB will guide the early stage startups to improve marketing abilities and provide technical training and skill development.
The TDB in September 1996, under the Technology Development Board Act, 1995, was set up as a statutory body, to promote development and commercialisation of indigenous technology and adaptation of imported technology for wider application.