- 25 Startups get Rs 1.25 Crore TANSEED Grant
The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Thiru. M.K. Stalin handed over sanction orders for investments to the tune of Rs. 9.75 Crore in 8 Startups through Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Mission (StartupTN) in the second batch under the Tamil Nadu SC/ST Startup Fund, on May 5, 2023. In the event held at the Chief Minister’s Chamber, the investment beneficiaries included three Startups promoted by entrepreneurs from the tribal communities in Hasanoor and Tamarakarai in Erode district and Kotagiri in The Nilgiris.
Through this investment in the form of Compulsorily Convertible Debentures (CCD) the Government has become a shareholder in these companies to guide them on the growth path. TN SC/ST Startup Fund aimed at churning out inspirational stories that would spur the creation of more Startups by entrepreneurs from the communities in the march towards Inclusive Mass Entrepreneurship was announced as a Rs. 30 Crore fund in Budget 2022-23. In Budget 2023-24 it was announced as a Rs. 50 Crore fund.
Preliminary shortlisting of applications was carried out by StartupTN with the support of experts, followed by due diligence, interviewing and mentoring of the Startup founders. The Project Sanction Committee after a detailed evaluation approved investments in these Startups. Investment from the Government brings more credibility to the Startups, helping them acquire new clients and expand to more markets. StartupTN also provides mentorship and post-investment support to help them achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively.
The first batch of investees under this fund received the sanction orders from the Chief Minister for investments to the tune of Rs. 7.5 Crore in five Startups, using which the founders have started reaping the benefits by scaling up production and expanding their businesses. The second batch of investment made in Startups by founders from the SC/ST communities on Friday takes the total investment made by the Government of Tamil Nadu under the Tamil Nadu SC/ST Startup Fund to Rs. 17.25 Crore in 13 Startups.
Details of the eight Startups that received sanction orders for equity investment under the Tamil Nadu SC/ST Startup Fund, their line of business, the size of investment and how it would benefit them to scaleup are given below.
Company : Guhan Industrial and Manufacturing Solutions Pvt Ltd
Sector : Advanced Manufacturing
Investment : Rs. 2.5 Crore
Guhan is into development of indigenously manufactured abrasive waterjet cutting systems for high precision engineering. It has developed India’s first fully indigenous multi-pressure abrasive waterjet cutting system. The funding will help the company establish its fully indigenised tech enabled high precision manufacturing environment along with R&D for future use cases.
Company : SM Smartygen Media Networks Pvt Ltd (Shortfundly)
Sector : Media & Entertainment
Investment : Rs. 2 Crore
Shortfundly is an OTT platform for short-content genre content makers. The funding will help the Startup scale its operations by increasing its subscriber base, thereby onboarding more content makers onto its hosting platform as well as scale its own film festival to a wider audience.
Company : India Speak Research Lab Pvt Ltd
Sector : Artificial Intelligence
Investment : Rs. 2 Crore
The VoiceTech company provides Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text to Speech, Speech to Speech and Speech to Text, focusing on Indian Languages and have Indian English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam & Hindi in their portfolio. The funding will help the Startup mature their AI models and GTM with their solution in the media and entertainment domains.
Company : Sprint6 Specialized Services Pvt Ltd
Sector : Architecture
Investment: Rs. 50 Lakh
It is a facility management company with specialised services focused on restroom optimisation solutions. The funding will help the company scale its operations by serving more customers in restoring, optimising and renovating commercial restroom spaces and offer proactive maintenance support for restrooms.
Company : Destratum Solution Pvt Ltd (Health Attai)
Sector : Health Tech
Investment : Rs. 25 Lakh
Health Attai is a clinical management system for independent clinicians to maintain digital patient engagement, powered by Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission’s (ABDM) health stack. This funding will help the Startup complete its product and GTM.
Startups promoted by Scheduled Tribe entrepreneurs
Company : TAMS Tribal Green Fuel Pvt Ltd
Sector : Clean Energy
Investment : Rs. 25 Lakh
Tribals from Talavadi region in Erode District are setting up a biomass briquettes manufacturing facility out of Lantana camara, an invasive weed that is destroying the forests in the region. This funding support will facilitate manufacture of the lesser polluting fuel, improve livelihood opportunities in the tribal settlements and save the forests by deweeding.
Company : Namsanthai Kotagiri Tribal Pvt Ltd
Sector : Rural Livelihood
Investment : Rs. 25 Lakh
The Tribal company from Kotagiri in The Nilgiris is looking to establish a trading company that is primarily into trading tribal produced coffee and honey. The funding will help in structuring the procurement and value added processing of the same.
Company: Sholakar Tribal Creations Pvt Ltd
Sector : Rural Livelihood
Investment: Rs. 25 Lakh
This tribal community company in Sholaghar, Erode District, will be producing and engaging in B2B trading of tribal products such as honey, seemar brooms and furniture made from Lantana camara, an invasive weed. The funding will help the company modernise and scale its operations.
Tamil Nadu Seed Fund (TANSEED)
The Chief Minister also handed over cheques for the first trance of Rs. 1.25 Crore Tamil Nadu Seed Fund (TANSEED) grant to 25 Startups. This takes the total number of TANSEED beneficiaries in the State to 109, of whom the founders of 100 Startups have directly received the benefit from the Chief Minister since December 2021. TANSEED, the flagship initiative of StartupTN, was launched by the Government of Tamil Nadu to support early stage Startups with a seed grant of up to Rs. 10 lakh each.
Eighty-four Startups received the grant and have benefited in three editions and the first batch of the 4th edition of TANSEED so far. Launched on July 22, 2022, the 4th edition of TANSEED to benefit 50 Startups attracted a total of 1,029 applications from Startups till August 31. They were shortlisted in a multi-stage screening process and 25 Startups received the grant from the Chief Minister in the first phase in December. On Friday, the second batch of 25 Startups received sanction orders for TANSEED.
The Chief Minister handed over cheques for the first tranche of Rs. 5 lakh each to the first batch of 25 Startups, totalling Rs. 1.25 Crores. The second tranche of Rs. 5 lakh each will be handed over to them after they reach the milestones set for them. The awardees said that this grant would motivate them to scale up and soar to greater heights like their peers from the earlier editions. These Startups will play a pivotal role in achieving Tamil Nadu’s US $ 1 Trillion economy goal by 2030.
The event was carried out in the presence of the Minister for Higher Education Dr. K. Ponmudy, Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Thiru. T.M. Anbarasan; Chief Secretary Dr. V. Irai Anbu, I.A.S.; Secretary to Government, MSME Department, Thiru. V. Arun Roy,
I.A.S.; TANSIDCO Managing Director Tmt. S. Madhumathi, I.A.S., StartupTN Mission Director and CEO Thiru. Sivarajah Ramanathan, TANSIDCO General Manager Tmt A Rekha, Chairman – Indian Drug and Manufacturer Association Mr. J. Jayaseelan and other higher officials.
