NASSCOM IKP Innovation Fund

NASSCOM and ICICI Knowledge Park have announced details of NASSCOM ICICI Innovation Fund (NIIF) to stimulate technology innovation in India through providing seed capital funding for opportunities in emerging technologies. The fund corpus will be Rs. 100 crores in the initial round, with an expansion of another Rs.100 – 150 crores in additional rounds.

The fund seeks to provide seed capital to any company involved in IP creation in specific sectors. The criteria based on which a company can qualify for investments from the fund are:

1. The company must be based in India
2. The business activity must have a focus on IP creation
3. The company must be operating in one of the following sectors:
   * Automotive Infotronics
   * Life Sciences
   * Wireless
   * Medical Devices
   * Intelligent transport systems
   * Energy conservation technologies and devices

While there is no restriction on the age of the company, the fund will encourage companies that have been incorporated in the last couple of years or that have recently ventured into IP creation projects.