The Tamil Nadu government on Friday introduced a special package to boost green technology, rural impact and women-led startups in the state. This initiative included funding allocated under StartupTN’s flagship grant scheme, the Tamil Nadu Startup Seed Grant (TANSEED). He also announced a 50% increase in grants for startups that fall into the special category, from his current Rs 100,000 to his Rs 150,000.
The package, initiated by Prime Minister MK Stalin, is expected to boost the efforts of Tamil Nadu’s Startup and Innovation Mission (StartupTN). The grant is contingent on the achievement of certain milestones and is divided equally into three of his Rs 500,000. The scheme allocates 25% of TANSEED’s total support to women-led startups and 10% to startups with rural impact. Eligible companies will be provided with more seed funds as equity or convertible bonds from Tamil Nadu’s Emerging Sectors Seed Fund Scheme.
Numerous announcements include structured acceleration support for scale-up as well as funding and benefits. A dedicated co-working space will be available at the state-backed incubation center for women-led startups. These facilities are rent and membership fee free for her first year (up to Rs 200,000). Special entrepreneur training programs, special women mentorship programs, and portals that integrate startup ecosystem enablers are among the expected outcomes for women-led startups.
Other key features of this package include an annual acceleration scheme for women-led startups, femtech startups and a concentrated angel investor circle under the Tamil Angels Platform. To take advantage of these benefits, a startup must be owned by a woman or co-founded by a group of women with at least 75% of her stake in the company.
Commercially viable infrastructure projects that promote sustainability and circularity will be funded by the Green Climate Fund. StartupTN will set up a government procurement facilitation desk for eligible startups in Chennai and his regional startup hub in Madurai. This desk facilitates product testing and use in government and public institutions, including municipalities.
StartupTN’s flagship scheme, TANSEED, was launched by the state government to support early stage startups with seed grants of up to Rs 1 lakh each. 60 start-ups have received grants and so far he has benefited with 3 editions of his TANSEED.
Stalin also launched the MentorTN portal (mentors.startuptn.in) on Friday. Using this portal, budding startups can reach out to successful entrepreneurs, seasoned professionals and trusted subject matter experts to learn from their experience and expertise. Mentors guide startups in the early stages when startups tend to stumble. This will strengthen the startup ecosystem with more success stories.
