{"id":426705,"date":"2026-02-15T08:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T08:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/426705\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T08:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T08:04:10","slug":"ficci-mercedes-benz-india-announce-winners-as-dpiit-unveils-%e2%82%b910000-crore-fund-etauto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/426705\/","title":{"rendered":"FICCI\u2013Mercedes-Benz India announce winners as DPIIT unveils \u20b910,000 crore fund, ETAuto"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"<p>L-R:L-R: Sumeet Gupta is Director, FICCI , Winner – Control Z ,Mr Sanjiv Singh Joint Secretary DPIIT Govt of India , Mr. Vyankatesh Kulkarni, Executive Director & Head of Operations, Mercedes-Benz India
In a boost to India\u2019s start-up ecosystem<\/a>, the government has earmarked a \u20b910,000 crore Fund of Funds for Startups<\/a>, to strengthen entrepreneurship and scale high-potential ventures.<\/p>\n

The announcement was made by Sanjiv Singh, Joint Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT<\/a>), at the FICCI\u2013Mercedes-Benz India Bharat Innovation & Business Ideas Challenge Programme held in New Delhi on February 13, 2026.<\/p>\n

The national initiative concluded with the selection of seven winners from a pool of 32 shortlisted finalists. <\/p>\n

Singh handed over cheques of \u20b930 lakh each to the winning start-ups, and emphasised that while access to capital is critical, sustainable growth, strong governance, financial discipline and value creation are equally important in building enduring enterprises.<\/p>\n

Vyankatesh Kulkarni, Executive Director and Head of Operations at Mercedes-Benz India<\/a>, said the 32 shortlisted start-ups displayed exceptional curiosity, courage and commitment in addressing real-world challenges.<\/p>\n

The event brought together policymakers, industry leaders, investors and entrepreneurs, highlighting the role of public-private partnerships in accelerating India\u2019s innovation and start-up ecosystem<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

Published On Feb 14, 2026 at 04:51 PM IST<\/p>\n

\n Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals.
\n Subscribe to Newsletter to get latest insights & analysis in your inbox.\n <\/p>\n

All about ETAuto industry right on your smartphone! <\/p>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"L-R: Sumeet Gupta is Director, FICCI , Winner – Control Z ,Mr Sanjiv Singh Joint Secretary DPIIT Govt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[84,156544,4203,156542,81307,156543,101830,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-426705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dpiit","10":"tag-entrepreneurship","11":"tag-ficci","12":"tag-fund-of-funds-for-startups","13":"tag-mercedes-benz-india","14":"tag-start-up-ecosystem","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}