September 19, 2025, Gangtok: Ten technology startups from across North East India received Rs 10 lakh grants each during the Demo Day of North East AI and Digi-SAPNE 2.0 program at AIC-SMUTBI on Friday.
The six-month startup acceleration program supported by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) selected 12 startups from 402 applications across all eight North Eastern states. These startups collectively earned Rs 7.98 crores revenue and raised Rs 5.25 crores external investment in the last financial quarter.
“Programs like Digi-SAPNE 2.0 will inspire and empower a new generation of entrepreneurs,” said Dr G.K Prabhu, Vice Chancellor of SMU and Chairman of Board of AIC-SMUTBI, during the grant announcement ceremony.
The rigorous evaluation by government representatives, industry experts, investors and academia resulted in eight startups receiving Digi-SAPNE grants and two getting Startup India Seed Fund (SISF) support. This funding aims to strengthen entrepreneurship-led economic growth across the North Eastern region.
Digi-SAPNE grant recipients include:
- Respirit Healthcare (Assam)
- Recycle Bazaar (Meghalaya)
- Sutsung Enterprise (Nagaland)
- Green Biotech Ecolsolutions (Manipur)
- Cubo Bots (Tripura)
- Infinite Swasthya (Assam)
- Eigthsis Technologies (Mizoram)
- Acuvea Healthcare Technologies (Tripura)
SISF grant winners are:
- Arunachal Ivory & Ornaments (Arunachal Pradesh)
- Spaced Revision (Sikkim)
The program featured 28 mentors contributing over 1,000 hours of guidance and facilitated investment discussions with 14 agencies including venture capital firms and angel investors. A pre-Demo Day bootcamp on September 18 was supported by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
Tenzing Kaleon, Secretary, IT Department, Government of Sikkim, urged participants to pursue innovative ventures with confidence, highlighting increased government support for entrepreneurial initiatives in the region.
The event demonstrates the Government of India’s commitment through MeitY to build a robust innovation ecosystem and create sustainable economic opportunities across North East India’s emerging startup landscape.