Legal & Compliance
Startup India recognition, written properly.
DPIIT recognition is free to apply for and routinely refused for a weak write-up. The fee here buys the application being put together in a way that stands up, not access to a form that anybody can open.
₹999 professional fee
No government fee. DPIIT recognition is free.
Who needs it
Private limited companies, LLPs and registered partnership firms within ten years of incorporation, working on something new or on a scalable model, that want the recognition certificate for IPR rebates, tender relaxations and scheme eligibility.
DPIIT charges no fee for recognition, so ₹999 is the whole cost. Recognition is granted by DPIIT and not by us, and the tax benefits that people associate with it are a separate application that recognition makes you eligible to file, not something recognition itself grants.
What we need from you
- Certificate of incorporation or registration, and PAN of the entity
- Details of the directors or partners, and the authorised signatory
- A short write-up on what the business does and what is new about it
- Website, pitch deck or a product video, if you have one
- Details of funding raised, patents filed or awards won, where they apply
In detail
DPIIT / Startup India recognition
Whether you are eligible
Four conditions, and all of them have to hold. The entity has to be a private limited company, a limited liability partnership or a registered partnership firm, so a sole proprietorship does not qualify. It has to be within ten years of incorporation. Annual turnover must not have crossed ₹100 crore in any year since incorporation. And it has to be working towards innovation, development or improvement of a product, process or service, or be a scalable business model with real potential for employment or wealth creation. An entity formed by splitting up or reconstructing an existing business is excluded. We check all four before you pay anything, and will tell you if you do not qualify.
What recognition actually gets you
Self-certification of compliance under a set of labour and environment laws for the first years after incorporation. Substantial rebates on intellectual property filings, with fast-tracked examination and a facilitator whose fees the government bears. Relaxation of prior turnover and prior experience requirements in public procurement, along with exemption from earnest money deposits on many tenders. A faster winding-up route. And eligibility to apply for the government’s startup funding schemes, which are open only to recognised startups.
What it does not get you, whatever anyone tells you
Recognition is not a grant, and no money arrives with the certificate. It is not the income tax holiday either. That benefit is a separate application to an Inter-Ministerial Board, decided on its own merits, and most recognised startups do not have it. Recognition makes you eligible to apply; it does not approve you. Anyone who sells you recognition on the promise of a tax exemption is selling you something they cannot deliver.
Why applications get rejected
The write-up, nearly always. The application asks what problem you solve, how you solve it, and what about it is new or scalable, and an answer that reads like a company brochure gets refused. What works is specific: the problem, who has it, what you built, what is genuinely different about the approach, and what the evidence is so far, whether that is revenue, users, a patent filing or a pilot. Drafting that is the work you are paying for. If we think the business does not have a case, we will say so rather than file it and keep the fee.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Does DPIIT charge anything for recognition?
No. Recognition is free on the Startup India portal, and ₹999 is our professional fee for checking eligibility, drafting the write-up, filing the application and following it up. You are entirely free to file it yourself, and we would rather you knew that than found out afterwards.
Does recognition mean we do not pay income tax?
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding about it. The three-year deduction under Section 80-IAC is a separate application, decided by an Inter-Ministerial Board on its own criteria, and the large majority of recognised startups have not been granted it. Recognition makes you eligible to apply for it. Nothing more than that.
Can a proprietorship get DPIIT recognition?
No. The entity has to be a private limited company, an LLP or a registered partnership firm. If you are running as a proprietorship and want recognition, incorporating comes first. Tell us what you want to do and we will tell you what that would involve before you commit to either.
How long does recognition take?
Filing happens within a working day or two of the write-up being settled with you, which is the part that takes the real time. After that it sits with DPIIT, and the outcome typically comes back within a few weeks. We do not control that and will not put a date on it.
What if the application is rejected?
A rejection usually points at the write-up or at eligibility. Where it is the write-up, we will revise and refile it once at no further fee. Where the entity does not actually meet the conditions, no amount of redrafting fixes that, and we will tell you so plainly rather than keep refiling.
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