STPI failed to meet start-up funding scheme targets, says DG Arvind Kumar

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has failed to meet the target of funding 300 start-ups under a central scheme, its Director General Arvind Kumar said while calling for a review of the performance of the agency which has been set up to promote IT and ITES companies.

During the STPI's Sangam event, Kumar said that the organisation has been able to provide seed funds to 136 start-ups in the last three years under the Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS) which calls for analysing the shortcomings in the implementation of the scheme.

He said that the event Sangam marks the celebration of a technology startup's success.

"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.

The government has approved the Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS) with a total budget outlay of Rs 95.03 crore to extend incubation facilities to 300 tech start-ups through 12 specialised incubators of Software Technology Park of India (STPI) located in small cities.

STPI DG said that the organisation has been able to provide around Rs 35 crore to 136 start-ups against equity in the range of 1-3 per cent.

"We have to see where we failed actually. Why were we not able to give (fund), or there was a lacuna in the scheme or in our mentoring, in our funding scheme or fund manager or our officers or outreach to the colleges. I don't know. This forum (Sangam) for a full day is not just for celebration. It is for analysing, taking an honest look at ourselves why we were not able to achieve the target of 300 start-ups," Kumar said.

He asked the participants to give feedback on the changes required in the scheme or processes to achieve the 100 per cent target.

Ministry of Electronics and IT Secretary, S Krishnan at the event said in case of artificial intelligence in the recent past, practically every serious innovation has come from a startup or an innovator and only thereafter it has been adopted by one of the big tech companies and taken forward.

He said that it is ?extremely important to fuel the startup boom.

"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 said that the problem could be due to there not being enough people taking this risk at the university or at college level and the other could be that there are too many people chasing too few startups.

STPI has shown the entrepreneurial side of a government institution to start-ups and venture capitalists like TiE, Krishnan said.

"I think a lot more institutions need to come together so that you pool resources. Mentors are difficult to come especially if you are looking at tier-2 and 3 cities," he said.