ONGC Start-Up Fund

Check the round before you prepare

• Applications open only during a numbered selection round. The apply page said the next round would be announced shortly, and the site's notices were not in step when we checked, so look at the live apply page first.
• Write to the Startup Cell inbox if you cannot tell whether a round is open.

Check you are eligible first

• The form excludes not-for-profit start-ups, start-ups formed by splitting or reconstructing an existing business, and individuals, proprietorships, partnerships, LLPs and public limited companies.
• It asks for your DPIIT start-up certificate details, but does not say a certificate is required.
• Be ready to answer questions on political exposure, pending criminal cases, blacklisting and any relationship with ONGC employees.

How applying works

• You apply on an online form. Every field is mandatory and the form cannot be saved, so keep your answers ready in a document before you start.
• You upload a presentation as a PDF, in ONGC's own format.
• Pick the sector area that fits your product, process or idea. There are areas from exploration and drilling to refinery processes, IT solutions and others.

How selection works

• ONGC evaluates applications and sets a first cut-off.
• Shortlisted start-ups present their business plan to a Steering Committee.
• Selected start-ups go through due diligence, then term sheets and an investment and incubation agreement.

Ask before you commit

• The site does not say whether support comes as equity, a grant or another form. Ask the Startup Cell this directly.
• Founders are asked whether they would take incubation support in Noida or Delhi NCR, so be clear about where your team can work.

ONGC Start-Up Fund, also called the ONGC Start-Up Initiative or ONGC Start-up, is a start-up programme run by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), a central public sector company. It is a cell inside ONGC rather than a separate company, and it sits at ONGC's head office at Vasant Kunj in New Delhi. It looks for start-ups from the energy sector, with a product, process or idea related to oil and gas.

How the programme works

ONGC launched the fund on 14 August 2016, in its Diamond Jubilee year, to foster, nurture and incubate new ideas related to the oil and gas sector. The support it describes is a full chain: seed capital, hand-holding, mentoring, market linkage and follow-ups. The site does not say whether the money comes as equity, a grant or something else, and it gives no equity terms, so treat that as something to ask before you apply.

Start-ups are not taken in at any time of year. Applications are collected in numbered selection rounds, and each round has an opening and a closing date. The selection steps shown on the site run in four stages. First, ONGC receives the application on its website or through an Innovation Challenge. Second, applications are evaluated to decide a first cut-off. Third, shortlisted start-ups present their business plan to a Steering Committee. Fourth, ONGC does due diligence and finalises term sheets and a Joint Incubation and Investment Programme Agreement with the selected start-ups.

Who can apply

The application form is for start-ups from the energy sector. It rules out not-for-profit start-ups and businesses formed by splitting up or reconstructing an existing business. It also states that an individual, a proprietorship firm, a partnership or LLP firm, and a public limited company are not eligible.

The form asks whether the start-up holds a DPIIT start-up certificate. It is a yes-or-no question, and the form does not say the certificate is mandatory. It also asks founders about political exposure, pending criminal cases, blacklisting, and any relationship with ONGC employees. Founders are asked whether they would accept incubation support in Noida or Delhi NCR.

The form groups ideas into these areas: exploration; drilling and cementing services; well testing, completion, workover and stimulation services; unconventional energy sources; offshore production operations; onshore production operations; natural gas processing and extraction of value-added products; human resource management, finance and marketing; health, safety and environment, EPC, materials management, logistics and IT solutions; refinery processes; and others.

Where rounds stand

The site's notices do not agree with each other, so check before you plan an application. The apply page says the 14th round closed on 30 September 2024 and that the next round will be announced shortly. The home page also shows an old notice for the 13th round, which closed in September 2023. Yet it links a list of nine start-ups selected for the pitching round of the 16th round, covering the third and fourth quarters of 2025-26. No round is shown as open at the time of this check.

Partners

ONGC has also signed an MoU with the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) at IIT Bombay as part of its start-up programme. The site publishes no terms for it, and it is not a separate intake.

Who runs it

The programme is run by the ONGC Startup Cell, on the fourth floor of Tower A at Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Urja Bhavan, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070. Questions go to the cell's enquiry inbox. The site also lists phone numbers for start-up queries.