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Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday (February 1) announced a new scheme for 5 Lakh scheduled caste/tribe first-time entrepreneurs
The scheme will incorporate lessons from the successful Startup India scheme," said Sitharaman
Additionally, online capacity building for entrepreneurship and managerial skills will also be organised
In her eighth consecutive budget speech on Saturday (February 1), finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a new scheme to offer term loans of up to INR 2 Cr to 5 Lakh first-time entrepreneurs from scheduled caste and tribe communities. The scheme will be implemented over the course of five years.
“The scheme will incorporate lessons from the successful Start-Up India scheme,” said Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget 2025.
Additionally, online capacity building for entrepreneurship and managerial skills will also be organised, she added.
Sitharaman also announced a new fund of funds (FoF) for startups with a corpus of an additional INR 10,000 Cr. Furthermore, the government is also exploring setting up an FoF for the deeptech sector, the minister said.
The Economic Survey 2025, which was tabled by the FM yesterday (January 31), highlights that more than INR 3,000 Cr was invested across 149 women-led startups through alternative investment funds (AIFs). It added that out of 1,57,066 ventures recognised under the Startup India Initiative, nearly half have at least one woman director.
Since the inception of early-stage focussed Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) in 2021, the government has approved INR 227.12 Cr in funding for 1,278 women-led startups.
As per an Inc42 report, women-led startups secured $523 Mn through 75 deals in H1 2024, up 81% year-on-year (YoY) from $289 Mn secured via 62 deals in H1 2023.
By the end of 2024, the total amount of funding raised by women-led startups rose to $930 Mn across 136 deals, marking a 93.75% increase from the $480 Mn raised in 118 deals in the entirety of FY23.
