Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday announced the setting up of a dedicated Startup India desk within the ministry to serve as a helpline for budding entrepreneurs across India, accessible through a simple four-digit toll-free number in regional languages.
He also said the second Fund of Funds for Startups with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore, has been approved and this year, and Rs 2,000 crore will be disbursed to SIDBI as the first installment.
A significant portion of the fund will be reserved for seed funding of small startups and to support deep-tech innovation startups, he said.
Through this fund, “we aim to foster the development of cutting-edge technologies like AI, robotics, quantum computing, machine learning, precision manufacturing and biotech,” he said, adding that through the desk, a startup can suggest steps to further improve the ecosystem and flag problems, if they are facing any.
The objective of the fund is to provide early-stage financial support to budding entrepreneurs who often face challenges in accessing traditional forms of capital.
