Cash support drives billion-baht returns
PUBLISHED : 19 Nov 2024 at 10:05
The Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry announced an increase of almost 20% of its technology fund for 270 projects to support tech entrepreneurs expand their start-up ventures for next year.
The ministry’s Technology and Innovation-based Enterprise Development Fund (TED Fund) recently hosted TED Fund Grant Day 2024 to celebrate its efforts in supporting emerging entrepreneurs to allow them to incorporate research and innovations into commercial ventures.
Supachai Pathumnakul, the ministry’s permanent secretary and TED Fund chairman, emphasised the ministry’s commitment to fostering the economy’s sustainable self-reliance and competitiveness.
He said the ministry assigned the TED Fund to provide students, recent graduates, and startup entrepreneurs with access to government funding, allowing them to commercialise their research and innovations.
Prof Supachai said the move aligns with the government’s medium-term and long-term policies for advancing the digital economy.
In 2024, the TED Fund has supported 264 projects nationwide with over 232 million baht in funding.
“TED Fund’s financial support is not concentrated solely in the country’s centre but is distributed across all areas,” said Prof Supachai.
TED Fund manager Tipawan Vetchakarunyakorn said the fund’s key project initiatives for this year included TED Youth Startup, supporting young entrepreneurs through funding programmes such as TED Youth Startup’s Ideation Incentive Programme; TED Market Scaling Up, helping startups expand domestically and internationally with funding up to 2 million baht; and Startups for Startups, providing support to startups with up to 2 million baht of funding.
The TED Fund’s aim for the next year is to support another 270 projects in 13 innovative sectors, with a budget of over 273 million baht, a 17.6% increase.
Ms Tipawan said that channelling the TED Fund this year to tech entrepreneurs has resulted in social and economic betterment activities estimated to have generated more than a billion baht.
