NIDHI Seed Support Program

NIDHI SSP enables incubators to provide seed support to incubated startups. DST material shows seed support can go up to ₹100 lakh per startup through eligible incubators. Funding under NIDHI-SSP is typically structured as compulsorily convertible debentures or other equity-linked instruments rather than a pure grant, and incubators themselves can receive grant-in-aid of up to ₹1,000 lakh to redistribute as seed support to their resident startups. A common eligibility gate is that the applicant startup must have completed at least three months of association with the hosting incubator, and DPIIT recognition is generally preferred though not always mandatory. Because the instrument and exact ticket size (often ₹20-50 lakh, occasionally up to the ₹1 crore ceiling) are set incubator-by-incubator, founders should check the specific terms of the TBI running their cohort before applying.