ELEVATE Minorities 2026 — Startup Karnataka Grant for Minority Founders

One-time grant up to ₹50L for Karnataka startups where a minority founder holds at least 51%, to build a prototype and scale up.

ELEVATE Minorities 2026 is the call of the Government of Karnataka's ELEVATE grant-in-aid scheme for startups led by founders from minority communities. It is run by the Department of Electronics, IT, BT & S&T. It gives a one-time grant of up to ₹50 lakh to startups that need early-stage funding to build a prototype, develop their market and scale up.

The call is for founders from the minority communities defined by the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation: Muslims, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and Parsis. At least one Director or Partner must belong to the community and, with any other minority members, hold at least 51% of the equity. That has to be true on the application date and for the whole project. A dilution that breaks it leads to disqualification or termination of the grant. This Director or Partner needs a valid digital Minority Certificate from the Revenue Department, Government of Karnataka, with an RD Number.

There is a single pitch deck on the portal template, with no separate qualification deck. Funding is milestone-based, and selected startups are mapped to government-supported incubators (K-Tech Partners) for mentoring and incubation at subsidised rates.