How eligibility scoring works

The four verdicts

Incubateer reduces a grant's fit to one of four plain verdicts so you can scan quickly. You never see a percentage on the card.

• Strong match. A high score, and at least one real part of your profile lines up beyond stage. Stage alone means little, because nearly every idea-stage programme matches an idea-stage founder. These deserve your time first.
• Worth a look. A good score, or a high score where only your stage lines up. Open it, read the detail, and decide if the gap is closeable.
• Possible fit. Some part of your profile matches. Read the eligibility rules before you put hours into it.
• Long shot. Nothing lines up. You can still apply, but go in clear-eyed about the odds.

The full eligibility check

Click Check eligibility on any card, or Check All to run it in batches. You get a score from 0 to 100, your strengths, the gaps to address, the information that is missing, recommended next steps, and contact details with a suggested outreach email. The verdict on the card then changes to Eligible, Mostly eligible or Likely not eligible. Results are kept for 14 days.

Some lines in the check, such as a success rate or a typical range, are the model's estimate rather than a published figure. Confirm anything that matters on the scheme's own portal.

What feeds the verdict

The verdict comes from how your startup profile compares to each grant's criteria. The main dimensions are:

• Stage. Idea, MVP, Growth or Scale. Many grants only fund a specific stage.
• Sector. Some schemes only fund certain industries. A biotech grant will not score well for a pure SaaS product.
• State. State schemes depend on where you are based. A scheme limited to one Indian state shows "<State> startups only" and reads Likely not eligible if your profile names a different state. Nothing is hidden.
• Revenue and team. Several grants cap or floor revenue, or are aimed at pre-revenue startups.
• Registrations and founder category. DPIIT recognition, Udyam, incorporation year, and categories such as women-led or SC/ST founders. Cards show these as requirement chips, like Needs DPIIT or Women-led only. An extra incentive for a group is not read as a restriction.

Two rules sit above the score. A rule the scheme publishes and you actually fail outranks any score, and the grant is marked likely not eligible. A question we never asked you is treated as unknown, never as a failure. Where the app does not know an answer, it asks with one tap, for DPIIT, Udyam and incorporation year.

Why the score is honest, not inflated

It would be easy to mark everything a strong match so the app feels encouraging. We do not do that. Grant applications take real hours, and a flattering verdict that sends you toward a grant you cannot win is worse than no verdict at all.

So when something is a long shot, Incubateer says so. The tagline is "Find the grants you'll actually win," and an honest score is how we keep that promise.

How to improve your matches

The single biggest lever is a complete, accurate profile. Scoring can only judge what you have told it.

• Fill in the optional fields. The Eligibility Boosters at signup (founded year, legal entity, founder category, DPIIT and Udyam) are what most schemes gate on.
• Keep it current. When your stage, revenue, registrations or team change, update your profile. New milestones can move a grant from worth a look to strong match.
• Get registered. If a class of grants needs DPIIT recognition or a specific entity type and you do not have it, that is often the gate holding you back.
• Check each startup. Each startup is scored on its own profile, so complete each one separately.

You edit your profile from Edit Profile, your avatar in the sidebar. Your state is set at signup and cannot be changed in the app.

Common questions

What do the eligibility verdicts mean?

Each grant gets one of four honest verdicts: strong match, worth a look, possible fit, or long shot. After you run the full eligibility check on a grant, it becomes eligible, mostly eligible or likely not eligible. They reflect your real fit, not how impressive the grant sounds.

Why did a grant I like score low?

Usually a mismatch in a core requirement like stage, sector, state or a registration. Run the eligibility check on the grant to see the specific gaps, then decide if it is worth your time.