• STPI has invested INR 30.87 Cr in 136 startups and provided stipends to 359 ventures but failed to meet its target of funding 300 startups under NGIS.
  • STPI Director General Arvind Kumar has called for a review of the shortcomings in the scheme’s implementation, emphasizing the need for policy refinements.

The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has invested seed capital of ₹30.87 crore in 136 startups, according to a report. Additionally, 359 other tech ventures have been “financially incentivised” in the form of stipends amounting to ₹3.57 crore.

According to STPI Director General Arvind Kumar, 134 startups backed by the incubator have collectively secured ₹286 crore in external funding from investors, including angel investors and venture capitalists.

Speaking at an event on March 21, he highlighted the role of STPI in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation.

“Amongst these supported startups, 134 have also been able to raise external funding from an investor community comprising angels and venture capitalists of about Rs 286 crore, which is not only a validation of their business but also the testament of the progress made by these startups,” Kumar stated.

Kumar also noted that a significant portion of STPI’s startup portfolio comprises women entrepreneurs, accounting for 44% of the total. Many of these founders come from Tier-II and Tier-III cities. He further emphasized the incubator’s commitment to continuously refining policies and expanding outreach to strengthen the startup ecosystem.

“We are not just honouring startup success stories today; we are also reflecting on how we can improve, refine our policies, expand our outreach, and ensure that our startup ecosystem reaches its full potential,” he added.

Despite its funding initiatives, STPI has fallen short of its goal to provide financial support to 300 startups under the Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS), Kumar admitted.

The scheme, which has a budget outlay of ₹95.03 crore, was designed to support 300 tech startups through 12 specialized incubators in smaller cities. However, in the past three years, STPI has managed to fund only 136 startups under the program.

“But for me, it is more of a report card. The scheme was started five years back, but for two years actually, nothing happened except finding some fund manager. In these two and a half years, we were able to support around 685 startups and to 136, we were able to give seed funds. If I have to write my performance report, I think we are not able to do what we could have done. We had a target of 300. We achieved only 100. It is just 33 passing mark," Kumar said during the Sangam event.

Kumar stressed the need to analyze the reasons behind the shortfall, questioning whether the issue lay in the scheme’s structure, mentoring, outreach, or funding mechanisms. He called for feedback on necessary changes to achieve full implementation.

At the same event, Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan underscored the importance of fueling India's startup ecosystem, particularly in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence (AI). He noted that most AI innovations originate from startups before being adopted by major tech companies.

"It worries me and concerns me sometimes that we are not able to find enough new startups to actually populate the various centres, incubation centres and accelerators that we have established. It is a struggle. The incubators and accelerators are constantly attempting to find newer startups that they can actually incubate," Krishnan said.

He suggested that the shortage of startups could stem from a lack of risk-taking at the university level or an oversaturation of support institutions chasing too few startups.

Founded in 1991 under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), STPI is one of India’s oldest incubators. It operates more than 13 Centres of Excellence (CoEs) across the country, focusing on sectors such as healthtech, the Internet of Things (IoT), and agritech.

The announcement coincides with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement about India’s ambition to create 5,000 unicorns in the coming years. Goyal also noted that other nations are looking to replicate India's development model, which has placed emphasis on initiatives like Startup India.

Meanwhile, government data presented in Parliament earlier this year indicated that India now has over 1.61 lakh startups registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as of January 2025.

According to a report, Indian startups have collectively raised about ₹12.45 lakh crore ($150 billion) in the past decade, with the country now home to 119 unicorns and 31 publicly listed startups.

Edited by Harshajt Sarmah