Written by Intern Rency Gomes || Team Allycaral
National, January 2026: HDFC Bank, one of India’s leading private sector banks, today launched the FY26 edition of the Parivartan Start-up Grants programme, its flagship initiative supporting social impact-driven innovations. The programme will support 10 strategic initiatives across priority sectors including climate innovation, agriculture and sustainable livelihoods, manufacturing and MSME innovation, financial inclusion, and gender diversity and inclusion, alongside emerging areas such as AI and deep technology.
In FY26, the programme will disburse Rs 20 crore through non-dilutive grants, designed to enable pilots, validation, and early-stage scale-up of startups. This edition also marks steady progress towards the programme’s 10-year milestone, with expanded partnerships with incubators from reputed institutions across India.
The Parivartan Start-up Grants programme follows an incubator-led, portfolio-based model, under which partner incubators handle programme design, startup outreach, evaluation, mentoring, monitoring, and impact reporting.
Commenting on the launch, Mr. Kaizad Bharucha, Deputy Managing Director, HDFC Bank, said:
“Parivartan Start-up Grants has evolved as a benchmark in the industry that works closely with institutions to support innovation addressing clearly identified social and environmental challenges. In FY26, the focus is on further deepening sector engagement, strengthening ecosystems, and building institutional capacity to enable startups to receive sustained and structured support.”
Mr. Arup Rakshit, Group Head – Treasury, HDFC Bank, added:
“The programme reflects our view that early-stage social impact innovation benefits from strong institutional support that can provide mentorship, networks, and structured guidance. The FY26 edition builds on this approach, through partnerships with some of India’s leading incubators across climate action, financial inclusion, deep technology, and livelihood-focused sectors, while continuing to expand participation across regions.”
Since its inception in 2017, Parivartan Start-up Grants has supported over 500 startups, including 87 in FY25 alone, through partnerships with more than 130 incubators nationwide. Cumulatively, the programme has deployed ₹85+ crore in grant funding, with nearly 40% of supported startups originating from Tier II and Tier III cities. At a portfolio level, supported startups have raised over ₹900 crore in external funding, with ~40% co-founded by women. In FY25, the programme deployed ₹20 crore across 20 incubation centres under this model.
