The Karnataka government on Saturday rewarded 146 startups through its flagship ELEVATE programme.
The startups that were rewarded under ELEVATE programme, included 103 ELEVATE 2025 winners, 33 ELEVATE Unnati ( which supports start-ups by the SC/ST community) winners and 10 ELEVATE Minorities ( empowering entrepreneurs from Minority communities) 2025 start-ups with a total committed grant of ₹38.85 crores.
ELEVATE provides a one-time grant-in-aid of up to ₹50 lakhs to start-ups recognised under this programme. In addition, they are given mentoring and incubation support at subsidised rates at government-supported incubation centres to help in product development and validation, the Department of Electronics, IT & BT said Through ELEVATE, Karnataka is enabling entrepreneurs across the state to transform bold ideas into real impact, it said in a release.
1 January 2026
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Since its launch in 2017, the ELEVATE programme has disbursed ₹287.85 crores as grant-in-aid seed funding to 1,230 start-ups across Karnataka.
Of these, 37% are from beyond Bengaluru, while 28% are led by women entrepreneurs.
Statistics show that under ELEVATE 2025, 43% of the winners are women-led enterprises, while 43% are based beyond Bengaluru.
They are from sectors like agri-tech, biotechnology, food & beverages, and food processing, consumer electronics, ESDM and aerospace, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge reaffirmed the Karnataka government's deep commitment to its start-up ecosystem, emphasising that the success of entrepreneurs is intrinsically linked to the success of the government.
Referring to Karnataka’s role in shaping India’s start-up journey, he said, “As India marks ten years of the Start-up India movement, this is where it all began. This is where success stories are being built.”
