In order to support startups and nurture them, the Rajasthan government designed a programme. It is iStart.

Rajasthan is one among the first five states that launched its Startup Policy in 2015. The state allocated ₹500 crore for investments in early-stage startups. This would be used to support them by providing in the form of either equity or soft loans under the Techno Fund.

Furthermore, women entrepreneurs are supported with a funding of ₹100 crore and green startups with green initiatives would be provided with ₹50 crore.

The iStart programme is aimed to fund more than 30 early-stage startups that are being incubated under it.

The funding amount varies from ₹1.2 lakh to ₹20 lakh. There are several financial incentives under the iStart programme.

These include sustenance allowance, marketing sustenance allowance, seed funding, and the Techno Fund.

The incentives would be given to startups at each stage of the entrepreneurial journey starting from ideation to scaling.

The startups have been invited to participate in the iStart programme. A panel of experts would review them. These include the government, investors, members of academia and various stakeholders.

More than 700 startups registered under this programme. The startups applying for funding under the iStart programme have been multiplying exponentially over the years. Startups like Hyrefox, HippoCabs, Ecowrp, mPass, AgroWave, and EatXD have received funding.

Some startups received financial support in other ways also. One such example is EF Polymer, the agritech startup from Udaipur which has been selected recently for a one-year residency incubation programme by the Japanese government. EF Polymer will get a funding of ¥10 million under this programme in addition to mentorship, training, marketing assistance etc.

The programme has a 700-seater incubation centre in Jaipur. In addition to that, iStart Nest facilities are also available to cater to the business needs in the areas of Jaipur, Udaipur, and Kota. New centers would also be set up in Jodhpur and some other cities.

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