BY KARAN SEHGAL
Panaji
In what can be described as a shot in the arm for the information-technology (IT) sector, three startups have received seed capital from the State Government under ‘Goa Start-up Policy 2017’. These startups are: Qubiseed Technologies LLP, Uzoorba Technologies LLP and Yorokobi Technologies Pvt Ltd.
This information was provided by senior officials at the Department of IT (DoIT). Under the policy, startups with a promising idea can get a one-time grant from the State Government for an amount of upto Rs 10 lakh.
In most cases, start-ups are initiated by young professionals, who have an idea for business but they have little or no capital. Without seed capital, their ideas remain only on paper. But, with the help of seed capital, they can implement their ideas to an extent and hope to attract more funding from venture capitalists at a later stage.
Meanwhile, the government has also provided salary subsidy incentive to three start-ups, namely Qubiseed Technologies LLP, Mrinq Technologies LLP and Uzoorba Technologies LLP.
Under this scheme, for start-ups hiring local talent, 50% of the salary of a fresher is reimbursed by the government subject to a maximum of
Rs 10,000 per month per person. For startups with
60% locals in workforce, upto 25% of salary of local workforce subject to the cap of Rs 25 lakh per year is reimbursed by the government for three years.
Again, salary incentive is to decrease the burden on young startups to pay day-to-day operational costs. Salary incentive and seed capital are crucial for start-ups because without such support, a lot of them wouldn’t survive.
The officials at DoIT further informed that 53 startups have already been registered under Goa Start-up Policy 2017. When start-ups get registered, they become eligible for various policy incentives.
