New Delhi, Jul 26 (KNN) The Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Prakash has said that Startups provided employment to 26, 327 people in Tamil Nadu in the last three years.

''Under the ''Startup India‟ initiative, as on 07.07.2021, a total of 26,327 employment has been reported by DPIIT recognized startups from Tamil Nadu in the last three years,'' Prakash, on July 23rd, informed Rajya Sabha, while responding to a question on the volume of employment generated by startups.

As per the details shared by the minister, around 8,628 jobs were provided by the startups in the year 2020.

Startup India is a flagship initiative of the Government of India, intended to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

The minister said that ‘Fund of Funds for Startups’ (FFS) was established by DPIIT in 2016 with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to give a boost to the startup ecosystem.

The minister also said that DPIIT has created Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) with an outlay of Rs 945 crore to provide financial assistance to startups for prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialization.

''This would enable startups to graduate to a level where they will be able to raise investments from angel investors or venture capitalists or seek loans from commercial banks or financial institutions,'' he said.

“The scheme will support an estimated 3,600 entrepreneurs through 300 incubators in the next 4 years,” he added.