Scheme for Assistance for Start Ups/Innovation

What is the Scheme for Assistance for Start Ups/Innovation?

Scheme for Assistance for Start Ups/Innovation is the umbrella startup programme of the Industries and Mines Department, Government of Gujarat, administered by the Startup Cell of the Industries Commissionerate. Introduced under the Gujarat Industrial Policy, the scheme exists to encourage research and development and to turn ideas into commercially viable enterprises that create jobs in the state.

The scheme takes a deliberately wide view of who counts as an innovator. It is open to any individual or group of individuals with an innovative idea or concept, not only to registered companies. That matters, because the two things a first-time founder in Gujarat usually lacks are a place to build the prototype and enough money to live on while building it. Scheme for Assistance for Start Ups/Innovation addresses both.

Delivery runs through Nodal Institutions; universities, incubators and councils approved by the Industries Commissionerate, such as the GUIITAR Council. A Nodal Institution hosts the startup, mentors it, evaluates and validates the project proposal, and recommends it to the office of the Industries Commissioner. The Industries Commissionerate sanctions the assistance.

What assistance does the scheme provide?

Seed support is the core of the scheme. It covers the real costs of getting a product from prototype to market: raw material and components, professional and consultancy charges, testing and certification, intellectual property filing, and initial marketing. It is released against actual expenditure, certified by a chartered accountant, rather than as an unconditional grant.

Sustenance allowance is the founder's own stipend, paid monthly so that a founder without a salary can work full time on the venture. It is documented in detail on its own page.

Acceleration assistance pays for a founder to join a recognised accelerator programme, including programme fees and related costs. Skill development assistance covers training that the founding team needs, from technical certification to sales and finance for non-commerce founders.

Pre-Series A funding through Gujarat Venture Finance Limited is an investment, not a grant. It is intended for startups that have crossed the seed stage and are raising an institutional round, and it carries the usual commercial terms.

Who is eligible and who is not eligible?

Eligible:

• Any individual or group of individuals with an innovative idea or concept, whether or not an entity has yet been registered.
• Early-stage startups operating from or intending to operate from Gujarat.
• Startups in the priority sectors, which include agriculture and agri-tech, artificial intelligence and machine learning, biotechnology, clean technology and sustainability, healthcare and life sciences, and other emerging areas.
• Students and faculty working through a university that is an approved Nodal Institution.
• Startups willing to be hosted, mentored and evaluated by a Nodal Institution.

Not eligible:

• A business with no innovation component, a trading firm, a franchise outlet, a routine service agency or a conventional manufacturing unit — cannot apply here. Such units should look at the Aatmanirbhar Gujarat and MSME capital subsidy schemes instead.
• A proposal that has not been recommended by an approved Nodal Institution will not be considered, however strong it looks.
• Mature, revenue-scaled companies past the early stage the scheme is designed for.
• Applicants drawing a full-time salary elsewhere are not eligible for the sustenance allowance component, even if the project itself is approved.
• Duplicate claims for the same expenditure already reimbursed under another state or central scheme.
• A startup that has availed incentives for the same project under another scheme of the State Government cannot double-dip.

How to apply for the Scheme for Assistance for Start Ups/Innovation

1. Prepare the project proposal. Write a detailed project report covering the innovation, the problem it solves, the current stage of the prototype, the target market, the team, the amount sought and how each rupee will be spent.
2. Choose an approved Nodal Institution. Check the list of approved Nodal Institutions published by the Industries Commissionerate and pick one whose sector focus and location suit your venture.
3. Submit the application online to that Nodal Institution, uploading the project report, founder identity and address proof, and any prototype or validation evidence you have.
4. Present to the Nodal Institution's evaluation committee. The institution evaluates and validates the proposal, may ask for revisions, and then decides whether to recommend it.
5. Wait for the recommendation to reach the Industries Commissionerate, where the state-level committee considers the recommended proposals and issues the approval and sanction letter naming the components and amounts granted.
6. Complete entity registration and open a bank account in the startup's name before the first disbursement, if you applied as an individual.
7. Claim disbursement against actual expenditure, submitting bills and a chartered accountant certified expenditure statement through the Nodal Institution for each tranche.
8. File progress reports as required by the Nodal Institution and the Industries Commissionerate for as long as the assistance runs.

How can a founder check the status of an application?

Status is tracked through the Nodal Institution, which holds the file until it is recommended and remains the channel afterwards.

• Ask your Nodal Institution's startup cell for the internal evaluation stage and, once recommended, the date the file went to the Industries Commissionerate.
• Log in to the portal on which you submitted the proposal and check the application dashboard.
• Contact the Startup Cell, Industries Commissionerate, Block No. 1, 2nd Floor, Udyog Bhavan, Gandhinagar, for a proposal pending at state level.

Keep the proposal reference number issued by the Nodal Institution. Every later enquiry runs on that number.

Why do startup applications get rejected?

• No demonstrable innovation. A conventional business model dressed in startup language is the most common rejection.
• A vague fund utilisation plan. The committee wants a line-item budget, not a round number.
• No prototype or validation at all, with nothing beyond a written idea.
• The founding team lacks the capacity to execute, with no technical member and no plan to hire one.
• Applying directly to the Industries Commissionerate without a Nodal Institution recommendation.
• Overlapping claims with another government scheme for the same expenditure.
• Incomplete documents at claim stage, especially missing original bills or an uncertified expenditure statement.

What is the current status of the scheme?

Scheme for Assistance for Start Ups/Innovation was notified under the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020, which was in force from 7 August 2020 to 6 August 2025. Gujarat has since notified a new industrial policy with a revised startup package that raises several of these figures, including a higher sustenance allowance payable to more than one co-founder and larger seed support and acceleration ceilings.

Founders applying now should therefore treat the amounts above as the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 rates and confirm the live scheme window and the current rates with their Nodal Institution or the Startup Cell before building a budget around them. The application route: Nodal Institution first, Industries Commissionerate second: has not changed.

Help and grievance redressal

• Startup Cell, Industries Commissionerate, Block No. 1, 2nd Floor, Udyog Bhavan, Gandhinagar 382 010. Phone 079-23252683 or 079-23252617, email iccord@gujarat.gov.in.
• Startup Gujarat portal at startup.gujarat.gov.in for scheme documents, Nodal Institution lists and updates.
• Your Nodal Institution's startup cell, the first place to raise a delay or a dispute over evaluation.
• General Manager, District Industries Centre in your district, for local facilitation.

No fee is payable to the Government of Gujarat for applying under this scheme.