ELEVATE 2026 — Startup Karnataka Grant-in-Aid Program

ELEVATE 2026 is the open call of the Government of Karnataka's flagship grant-in-aid scheme for early-stage startups, run by the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) under the Department of Electronics, IT, BT & S&T. It offers a one-time grant of up to ₹50 lakh to help founders turn an idea into a working proof-of-concept and validate it in the market.

This is the general call: any startup registered in Karnataka can apply, based anywhere in the state. The Department also runs three sibling calls for specific founder categories — ELEVATE Aspire for startups registered beyond Bengaluru Urban, ELEVATE Unnati for SC/ST-owned startups, and ELEVATE Shakti for women-led startups. A startup may apply to more than one call, but a single pitch is evaluated across all applied calls and the cumulative grant is capped at ₹50 lakh.

Funding is released in two equal tranches against milestones. The first tranche follows the signing of a tripartite agreement between KITS, the assigned K-Tech innovation partner and the startup; the second is released after the first milestone is reviewed and approved. Beyond the money, selected startups are mapped to government-backed incubators, accelerators, Centres of Excellence and innovation hubs (K-Tech Innovation Partners) for mentoring and incubation support at subsidized rates.

The call suits early-stage Karnataka founders who need non-dilutive capital to build and prove a product. Selection is competitive and merit-based, run through pitch evaluation and multi-city pitching rounds.