Having an startup idea and implementing that idea into the real grounds are different things and each step taken by the startup needs crystal clear vision and to solidify that vision into reality founder needs funding flow to let visualize the idea.

Money is the fundamental resource to keep the lights on, to build strong team, to build the strong product, to market the product, gaining traction etc.

Raising money/funding may not have been required when you started building the company, but in later stages it is required to gain the sustained growth and traction. There are different types of investors in the market to fund the startups, however different stages are there to understand to get funded from the investors and venture capitalists.

The five startup funding stages outlined below provide a foundation to get you started-

1. Seed Capital

Seed capital is the first source of investment your startup requires. Seed capital as one of the first Startup Funding Stages may be sourced from channels such as friends and family (F&F), crowdfunding, credit cards, your personal savings, Syndicate funding (includes a startup, a lead investor and backers), P2P Lending Platforms. No matter whom you raise money from, there is no free money, and interest on their investment in your startup should be clearly defined. You should provide tangible deliverable and milestones and update them regularly on your progress. The purpose of the money you are raising at this stage is commonly focused on research and development for an initial product, or a minimum viable product (MVP). There are different seed accelerators who are potential options if above mentioned channels are not fruitful. In my view, accelerators are one of the best options available who invests in both your startup and your potential to develop and pitch your solution to potential investors. First take the time to prepare, research, and validate your idea then approaching an investor for a higher likelihood of acceptance is the best idea. Apart from accelerators, there are many of the venture capital firms also who are providing seed investments to the startups.

2. Angel Investment

After the seed funding a startup taken and created a minimum viable product through it, now the time comes to let your startup grow and to this you need to increase funding. This kind of funding is required towards product development, marketing, expand your team to keep up the momentum. For this, angel investors come as a solution. If your startup is raising money at this stage, your business model canvas should be proven. At this stage, angel investors not only help startups in funding point of view but also they help the startups gain success, provide strategic assistance as well as play roles such as advisers also. Angels are different from other investment entities such as Venture Capital firms since they are using their own money and should be treated as such when solicited for funding. They may invest individually or also pool their money with a group. Since the money raised at this stage can be significantly higher than in the seed round, investors will also expect a compelling and well-researched pitch as well as partnerships such as equities in the startups.

3. Venture Capital Funding

Venture Capital Funding comes after the angel investment where the size of such funding is much larger. It is used to scale the business to new business channels, customer segments, or to increase marketing efforts for additional customer acquisition. At this stage, your startup might be either profitable or could benefit from offsetting the negative cash flow with this new wave of investment while the business continues to grow. Multiple rounds of funding such as Pre-series A, Series A, Series B etc. may happen at this stage of funding, and investors may also join the organization and provide additional expertise. In this stage also, various offerings such as equity, SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity), and convertible notes are provided to the investors/venture capital firms. Since VCs are investing other people’s money, their job is to make a sound investment in businesses that are likely to yield a meaningful ROI for their clients. VCs make a careful and critical examination of startups regularly, so when you pitch to them, be engaging and be prepared.

4. Mezzanine Financing & Bridge Loans

This is the stage where your startup seems to be growing significantly with a commercially available product, revenue should be coming in regularly although the startup is not yet profitable. The raised capital at this stage is used towards expansion of startup to new horizons, new mergers, new acquisitions, or the founders may be preparing for an IPO. Investors at this stage want to see a clear road-map towards profit shortly. For example, mezzanine financing can cover the expenses that an IPO involves. With the profits made from the IPO, the mezzanine investor is paid back with interest.

5. IPO (Initial Public Offering)

Very few startups reach at this point where for many this is not the end goal. IPO is an option to expand their business further. All of the investors who have invested their money for equity until this point will ideally recoup their investment along with additional profit, some investors may retain their shares, and some of them sell their stock at the beginning to reap the rewards of getting in early. After the IPO, stock options for a growing company can be leveraged to attract top talent and the increased access to capital can provide resources to push the momentum of your business forward. Planning for an should begin 24 months before since all such as reconstituting the board, setting corporate governance in place, raising a secondary round if required, identifying and discussing with merchant bankers, getting the documentation right takes time. IPO market way is the route where company is in high growth business and gaining profitability and revenues.

Also read- How to create/register a company for startups online in India.

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StartupIndia scheme is a golden scheme launched by Government of India under MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY to promote and grow the startups in India.

Government of India has introduced very efficient policy to support startups & new business ventures with creative & innovative ideas.

StartupIndia is a campaign to promote banks for financing new ventures to encourage entrepreneurship and star ups with jobs creation. Announced by hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his lecture on 15th August, 2015 from the Red Fort, to encourage entrepreneurs for creating jobs instead of doing jobs and increase employment in India.

The purpose of this Scheme is to restrict role of States in policy domain and to eliminate of “License Raj” and break hurdles like in land permissions, foreign investment, environmental clearances, political interferences etc. It was regulated by DIPP (Department of industrial policy and promotion).

1. Incorporate your Startup/Business

You must first incorporate your business as a Private Limited Company or a Partnership firm or a Limited Liability Partnership. You can refer our earlier post to get the help on Incorporating a company.

2. Register with Startup India

Go to StartupIndia website and follow the simple steps to get registered there as a startup. The entire process is simple and online. All you need to do is log on to the Startup India website and fill up the form with details of your business and upload certain documents. Give entity details, startup office address, authorized representative details, Directors and Partners details etc.

3. Documents in PDF format to be uploaded

A) A letter of recommendation/support

A letter of recommendation, from any of the below, needs to be submitted along with the registration form.(i) A recommendation (regarding innovative nature of business) from an Incubator established in a post-graduate college in India, in a format specified by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)

(ii) A letter of support by an incubator, which is funded (in relation to the project) by Government of India as part of any specified scheme to promote innovation

(iii) A letter of recommendation (regarding innovative nature of business), from an Incubator, recognized by the Government of India in DIPP specified format

(iv) A letter of funding of not less than 20% in equity, by any Incubation Fund/Angel Fund/Private Equity Fund/Accelerator/Angel Network, duly registered with SEBI that endorses innovative nature of the business

(v) A letter of funding by Government of India or any State Government as part of any specified scheme to promote innovation

(vi) A patent filed and published in the Journal by the Indian Patent Office in areas affiliated with the nature of the business being promoted.

B) Incorporation/Registration Certificate

You need to upload the certificate of incorporation of your company/LLP (Registration Certificate in case of partnership)

C) Description of your business in brief

A brief description of the innovative nature of your products/services.

1. 1. If you want to avail Tax benefits under this scheme: Startups are exempted from income tax for 3 years. But to avail these benefits entity must be certified by the Inter-Ministerial Board (IMB). Start-ups recognized by DIPP, Govt. of India can now directly avail IPR related benefits without requiring any additional certification from IMB. There are certain other conditions as well like the entity must be incorporated on or after the 1st day of April, 2016 but before the 1st day of April, 2019, and must be working towards innovation, development or improvement of products or processes or services, or should be a scalable business model with a high potential of employment generation or wealth creation.
   2. Finally self-certify for below steps-
      A) Entity must be a Private Limited Company, Partnership firm or a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) B) Turnover must be less than 25 crores per year. C) Innovation is a must– the business must be working towards innovating something new or significantly improving the existing used technology. D) Your business must not be as a result of splitting up or reconstruction of an existing business.

Apart from the tax benefits startups get after registering in this program, startups also get funding support. Government has set up a fund with an initial corpus of INR 2,500 crore and a total corpus of INR 10,000 crore over a period 4 years (i.e. INR 2,500 crore per year) for the registered startups under StartupsIndia program.

Recently, SEBI has also taken steps to ease Angel Funding for Startups in India. You can follow the above steps to register your startup.

Other than this, there are certain Startup laws every Entrepreneur should follow.

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