Startup means an entity, incorporated or registered in India :

• Not prior to five years,• With annual turnover not exceeding INR 25 crore in any preceding financial

year, and• Working towards innovation, development, deployment or commercialization

of new products, processes or services driven by technology or intellectual property.

Provided that such entity is not formed by splitting up, or reconstruction, of a business already in existence. Provided also that an entity shall cease to be a Startup if its turnover for the previous financial years has exceeded INR 25 crore or it has completed 5 years from the date of incorporation/ registration. Provided further that a Startup shall be eligible for tax benefits only after it has obtained certification from the Inter-Ministerial Board, setup for such purpose.

Some popular Indian Startu

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Some popular Indian Startu

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Fusion ChartsFusionCharts, part of InfoSoft Global (P) Ltd, is privately held software provider of data visualization products (JavaScript Charts, Maps, Widgets and Dashboards) with offices in Bangalore and Kolkata, India.

PayTM• Paytm is an Indian electronic commerce and payment

system company headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. • It was launched in 2010. It is owned by One97 Communications. • The firm started by offering mobile recharging, adding bill

payment and e-commerce. • In 2015, it further added booking bus travel.• Paytm also launched movie ticket booking by partnering

with Cinépolis in the year 2016.• Paytm is an acronym for "Pay Through Mobile“• The surge in usage of the service was largely due to

the demonetization of the 500 and 1000 rupee currency notes

zomato• Zomato is a restaurant search and discovery service founded in 2008

by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. It currently operates in 23 countries, including India, Australia and the United States.

• The website provides information and reviews on restaurants, including images of menus where the restaurant does not have its own website.

• The service began as "Foodiebay“. In November 2010, Foodiebay was renamed as Zomato. Between 2010-13, Zomato raised approximately US$16.7 million from Info Edge (India) giving them a 57.9% stake in Zomato.

• On 4 June 2015, an Indian security researcher hacked the Zomato website, gained access to information about 62.5 million users. Using the vulnerability, he was able to access personal data of users such as phone number, email address, and Instagram private photos using their Instagram access token. Zomato fixed the issue within 48 hours of it becoming apparent. On 15 October 2015, Zomato changed business strategies from a Full-Stack market to an enterprise market. This led Zomato to fire 10% of its workforce, around 300 people.

• OYO Rooms, commonly known as OYO, is an Indian hotel brand that owns and operates as well as aggregates standardised hotel rooms. It currently operates in more than 200 Indian cities and in Malaysia.

• Ritesh Agarwal is the founder and CEO of OYO.• He launched his first start up, Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd. in 2012.‐• Oravel was designed as a platform for booking budget and premium

accommodation. • Realising the great variability in the budget sector, he pivoted Oravel to

OYO in 2013.• OYO started with one city and one hotel in Gurgaon in January 2013. • The company as of October 2016 has around 6500 hotels in 220+ cities

of India, and has been named India's largest budget hotel chain.• It has also launched in Malaysia.

• MySmartPrice is an independent price comparison service website headquartered in Hyderabad, India.

• Categories include: Mobiles, Electronics, Computers, Fashion and Lifestyle, Home appliances and Personal Care.

• In addition to online price comparison, MySmartPrice also started including offline stores in its listings for mobile phones in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi.

• MySmartPrice Online was founded in 2010 by Sitakanta Ray and Sulakshan Kumar, both graduates from NIT, Rourkela after they quit their jobs at ICICI and Infosys.

• The two co-founders worked from their homes on building the business and developing the code through the first year of incorporation.

• MySmartPrice ranked 3rd on TechInAsia's list of '8 hot Shopping Search Engines in India' in 2013 and 9th in the Asian startup list in July 2015. It ranked 16th on Deccan Chronicle's list of '25 shoppingia platforms.

• Urban Ladder is a curated online furniture seller in Bangalore, India. It is present in 12 cities across India.

• Urban Ladder was started by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa in 2012. • Ashish Goel previously worked with McKinsey & Company and served as the CEO of Amar Chitra

Katha. • Rajiv Srivatsa previously worked with Cognizant and Yahoo! before co-founding Urban Ladder.• Urban Ladder is an online marketplace for furniture and home decor products.• The company delivers and installs all the products it offers.• The company also started a new practice in the Indian e-commerce market by initiating trials of

sofas in customers' homes.• The company is currently present in 19 cities across India and plans to expand its presence to 30

cities by 2016.• Urban Ladder collected the 'Best Digital Start-Up' Award at the 4th India Digital Awards conducted

by Internet and Mobile Association of India.• Ashish Goel was voted by the Network 7 Media Group Jury as "Game Changer Entrepreneur of the

year" 2016 at Satya Brahma founded 8th edition of India Leadership Conclave 2016.

• Hike Messenger (stylized as hike) is a cross-platform instant messaging service for smartphones that uses the internet for communication.

• In addition to text messaging, users can send each other graphical stickers, emoticons, images, videos, audios, files, voice messages, contacts and user location.

• Hike was launched on 12 December 2012 and raised its first round of funding of $7 million from Bharti SoftBank in April 2013.

• Hike is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and SoftBank.• On 16 August 2016 Hike raised $175 million in a new round of funding led

by Tencent & Foxconn. • After raising this round Hike Messenger reached the valuation of $1.4 Billion. Hike's

founder is Kavin Bharti Mittal.• Hike Messenger made its first acquisition in 2015, buying free voice-calling company Zip

Phones, which allowed it to launch free app based calling services that are emerging as a key draw for users.

• In 2015, Hike launched the "Great Indian Sticker Challenge" to invite designers to design new stickers. According to the company, 30% of the traffic comes from stickers.

Features of Hike• Hike supports 2 way chat themes that a user can change according to their relationship with person or their

mood. The option for chat themes are limited but one set the theme with their own pictures.• Hike Direct allows users to share messages and files without any kind of data charges within a radius of 100

metres through Wi-Fi Direct, was made available in October 2015. Over internet also it allows you to share files up to 100MB size.

• Hidden mode allows users to hide individual and group chats providing extended privacy.• In addition hike has a talking bot called Natasha. It is a talking bot that uses AIML(Artificial Intelligence

Markup language) to chat with users.• Hike Coupons allows users to get discount coupons from over 100 brands.• Games are available on hike messenger include Word rush, India Puzzle, Word Search, Number Rush,

Sudoku, Snake, Solitaire, Connect, 2048, Run Bhai Run, and Teen Patti Nights• Hike Daily sends daily quotes and facts to all users.• Hike aggregates news and other content such as videos, info graphics, and blogs, and summarizes them in

100 words or less. During the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, Hike provided CricBuzz updates to Android users about the World Cup scores

• "Just for laughs" is a feature that sends funny images to all the subscribed users.• In timeline feature one can share status, picture with entire friend list on hike. This feature is pretty similar to

the timeline concept of Facebook.• On March 31, 2016 Hike announced the Hike Smell, a fictional feature added as a prank on April Fools' Day.

• Capital Float is an online platform that provides working capital finance to SMEs in India.

• It offers flexible, short-term loans that can be used to purchase inventory, service new orders or optimize cash cycles.

• Borrowers can apply online in minutes, select desired repayment terms and receive funds in their bank accounts in 3 days with minimal hassle.

• Capital Float is the trade name of Zen Lefin Pvt. Ltd., a non-banking finance company (NBFC) registered with the RBI.

• Started in 2013 by Sashank Rishyasringa and Gaurav Hinduja, Capital Float has offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore.

• It is currently headquartered in Bangalore. Capital Float raised funds of close to $13million.

• Its management team consists of experienced professionals with prior careers in blue-chip companies such as McKinsey & Company, Gokaldas Exports, Oracle, Citibank, Capital First, and Wipro.

• ShopClues.com is an online marketplace, headquartered in Gurgaon, India.• The company was founded in California's Silicon Valley in 2011.• It has over 12,000 registered merchants retail 2,00,000+ products on the platform to over 42 million

visitors every year across 9500 locations in the country.• The e-commerce company is incorporated in Delaware.• ShopClues joined as 35th entrant in the Indian e-commerce in 2011.• The company employs about 700 people across different locations.• ShopClues is the subsidiary of Clues Network Inc.., a US Corporation and was founded in November 2011

by Radhika Aggarwal, her husband, Wall Street internet analyst Sandeep Aggarwal and Sanjay Sethi.• The company is headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana and has its registered office in Vadodara, Gujarat in

India. It also has an office in Palo Alto, California.• ShopClues delivers to over 9500 cities in association with leading courier partners. ShopClues fulfillment

operations are managed by 3 Fulfillment Centres in New Delhi and Mumbai.• Luxottica Group, the owner of popular eyewear brand Ray-Ban, had taken legal action against the online

marketplace for allegedly hosting fake products for sale. • The company took legal action against ShopClues, also accusing it of misleading customers by offering heavy

discounts. • The Delhi High Court found that ShopClues had breached its earlier direction and continued to sell Ray-Ban

branded items.

Government Action Plan for st

artups

Key points• Single Window Clearance even with the help of a mobile application• 10,000 crore fund of funds• 80% reduction in patent registration fee• Modified and more friendly Bankruptcy Code to ensure 90-day exit window• Freedom from mystifying inspections for 3 years• Freedom from Capital Gain Tax for 3 years• Freedom from tax in profits for 3 years• Eliminating red tape• Self-certification compliance• Innovation hub under Atal Innovation Mission• Starting with 5 lakh schools to target 10 lakh children for innovation programme• new schemes to provide IPR protection to start-ups and new firms• encourage entrepreneurship.• Stand India across the world as a start-up hub

Compliance Regime based on Self-Certification

• Startups shall be allowed to self-certify compliance (through the Startup mobile app) with 9 labour and environment laws.

• In case of the labour laws, no inspections will be conducted for a period of 3 years.

Startup India Hub

The “Startup India Hub” will be a key stakeholder in this vibrant ecosystem and will:

• Work in a hub and spoke model and collaborate with Central & State governments, Indian and foreign VCs, angel networks, banks, incubators, legal partners, consultants, universities and R&D institutions.

• Assist Startups through their lifecycle with specific focus on important aspects like obtaining financing, feasibility testing, business structuring advisory, enhancement of marketing skills, technology commercialization and management evaluation

• Organize mentorship programs in collaboration with government organizations, incubation centers, educational institutions and private organizations who aspire to foster innovation.

Rolling-out of Mobile App and Portal

The Government shall introduce a Mobile App to provide on-the-go accessibility for:• Registering Startups with relevant agencies of the Government. A simple form shall

be made available for the same. The Mobile App shall have backend integration with Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Registrar of Firms for seamless information exchange and processing of the registration application.

• Tracking the status of the registration application and anytime downloading of the registration certificate. A digital version of the final registration certificate shall be made available for downloading through the Mobile App.

• Filing for compliances and obtaining information on various clearances/ approvals/ registrations required.

• Collaborating with various Startup ecosystem partners. The App shall provide a collaborative platform with a national network of stakeholders (including venture funds, incubators, academia, mentors etc.) of the Startup ecosystem to have discussions towards enhancing and bolstering the ecosystem.

• Applying for various schemes being undertaken under the Startup India Action Plan.

Providing Funding Support through a Fund of Funds with aCorpus of INR 10,000 crore

In order to provide funding support to Startups, Government will set up a fund with an initial corpus of INR 2,500 crore and a total corpus of INR 10,000 crore over a period of 4 years (i.e. INR 2,500 crore per year) . The Fund will be in the nature of Fund of Funds, which means that it will not invest directly into Startups, but shall participate in the capital of SEBI registered Venture Funds.

Organizing Startup Fests for Showcasing Innovation andProviding a Collaboration Platform

To bolster the Startup ecosystem in India, the Government is proposing to introduce Startup fests at national and international stages.

These fests would provide a platform to Startups in India to showcase their ideas and work with a larger audience comprising of potential investors, mentors and fellow Startups.

As part of “Make in India” initiative, Government proposes to:• Hold one fest at the national level annually to enable all the stakeholders of Startup

ecosystem to come together on one platform.• Hold one fest at the international level annually in an international city known for

its Startup ecosystem.The fests shall have activities such as sessions to connect with investors, mentors, incubators and Startups, showcasing innovations, exhibitions and product launches, pitches by Startups, mentoring sessions, curated Startup walks, talks by disruptive innovators, competitions such as Hackathon, Makerspace, etc., announcements of rewards and recognitions, panels and conferences with industry leaders, etc.

Launch of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) with Self-Employmentand Talent Utilization (SETU) Program

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) shall have two core functions:• Entrepreneurship promotion through Self-Employment and Talent Utilization (SETU), wherein

innovators would be supported and mentored to become successful entrepreneurs• Innovation promotion: to provide a platform where innovative ideas are generated The main components proposed to be undertaken as part of the mission include: Entrepreneurship promotion:• Establishment of sector specific Incubators including in PPP mode • Establishment of 500 Tinkering Labs• Pre-incubation training to potential entrepreneurs in various technology areas in collaboration with

various academic institutions having expertise in the field• Strengthening of incubation facilities in existing incubators and mentoring of Startups• Seed funding to potentially successful and high growth Startups Innovation promotion:• Institution of Innovation Awards (3 per state/UT) and 3 National level awards• Providing support to State Innovation Councils for awareness creation and organizing state level

workshops/conferences• Launch of Grand Innovation Challenge Awards for finding ultra-low cost solutions to India’s pressing

and intractable problems.

Building Innovation Centres at National Institutes

• In order to augment the incubation and R&D efforts in the country, the Government will set up/ scale up 31 centres (to provide facilities for over 1,200 new Startups) of innovation and entrepreneurship at national institutes, including:

• Setting-up 13 Startup centres: Annual funding support of INR 50 lakhs (shared 50:50 by DST and MHRD) shall be provided for three years for encouraging student driven Startups from the host institute.

• Setting-up/ Scaling-up 18 Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) at NITs/IITs/IIMs etc. as per funding model of DST with MHRD providing smooth approvals for TBI to have separate society and built up space.

Setting up of 7 New Research Parks Modeled on the ResearchPark Setup at IIT Madras

The guiding principles behind the park include:• Creating a collaborative environment between industry and

academia through joint research projects and consulting assignments.

• Creating a self-sustaining and technologically fertile environment.• Encouraging and enabling R&D activities and Startups that are

aligned to potential needs of the industry.• Providing world class infrastructure for R&D activities and

incubation.• Enabling development of high quality personnel and motivating

professional growth for researchers in companies through part time Masters and PhD Programs.

Promoting Startups in the Biotechnology Sector

In order to promote Startups in the sector, The Department of Biotechnology shall be implementing the following measures along with its Public Sector Undertaking Biotechnology Research Assistance Council (BIRAC):

• 5 new Bio-clusters, 50 new Bio-Incubators, 150 technology transfer offices and 20 Bio-Connect offices will be set up in research institutes and universities across India.

• Biotech Equity Fund – BIRAC AcE Fund in partnership with National and Global Equity Funds (Bharat Fund, India Aspiration Fund amongst others) will provide financial assistance to young Biotech Startups.

• Bengaluru-Boston Biotech Gateway to India has been formed. Letter of Intent has been signed between DBT, GoI and Department of IT, Government of Karnataka for the same. Through this initiative, a range of institutes in Boston (Harvard/ MIT) and Bengaluru will be able to connect to share ideas and mentor the entrepreneurs especially in the areas of Genomics, Computational Biology, Drug Discovery and new vaccines.

• Amplification of Bio-entrepreneurship through BIRAC Regional Entrepreneurship Centres (BREC). The BREC aims to impart bio-entrepreneurs with the necessary knowledge and skills required for converting innovative ideas into successful ventures. Department of Biotechnology shall set up 5 Regional centres or Mini-BIRACs in the next 5 years.

Launching of Innovation Focused Programs for Students

In order to promote research and innovation among young students, the Government shall implement the following measures:

• Innovation Core. Innovation Core program shall be initiated to target school kids with an outreach to 10 lakh innovations from 5 lakh schools. One lakh innovations would be targeted and the top 10,000 innovations would be provided prototyping support. Of these 10,000 innovations, the best 100 would be shortlisted and showcased at the Annual Festival of Innovations in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

• NIDHI: A Grand Challenge program (“National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations) shall be instituted through Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centres (IEDCs) to support and award INR 10 lakhs to 20 student innovations from IEDCs.

• Uchhattar Avishkar Yojana: A joint MHRD-DST scheme which has earmarked INR 250 crore per annum towards fostering “very high quality” research amongst IIT students. The funding towards this research will be 50% contribution from MHRD, 25% from DST and 25% from industry. This format has been devised to ensure that the research and funding gets utilized bearing in mind its relevance to the industry. Each project may amount to INR 5 crore only. This scheme will initially apply to IITs only.