VC Firms and Programmes Accepting Applications in Asia, the Middle East and Turkey (2026)

VC firms accepting applications in Asia and the Middle East look different from their Western counterparts: the money is often sovereign or state-linked, the application is often a government portal rather than a Typeform, and the condition is often relocation. This guide, part of the Kurums Venture Capital hub, works region by region — India, Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea, the Gulf, and Turkey — listing the firms and programmes that take direct submissions as of October 2026, what each offers, what it asks for, and the incorporation or residency rules that decide eligibility, then compares them in one table.

Which Indian programmes and funds accept direct applications?

The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (via empanelled incubators), 100X.VC (class-based, ₹1.25 crore per company) and Venture Catalysts’ angel platform accept applications; Blume Ventures accepts a researched cold email but has no form.

The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) is the largest open door at the earliest stage. It provides a non-repayable grant of up to ₹20 lakh for proof of concept, prototype or trials, and debt or convertible debentures of up to ₹50 lakh for commercialisation. Eligibility, as summarised by IncorpX’s 2026 guide to the scheme, is DPIIT startup recognition, incorporation less than two years ago as a private limited company, LLP or registered partnership, and no more than ₹10 lakh received from other central or state schemes. Applications go through empanelled incubators rather than directly to DPIIT — the founder creates a profile on the SISFS portal, selects incubators and is evaluated by each incubator’s committee — and the end-to-end process typically takes three to six months. SIDBI’s Fund of Funds for Startups, by contrast, invests in venture funds, not in companies, so it is not an application route for founders.

100X.VC is India’s most systematic open-application investor. It invests ₹1.25 crore per company on India SAFE notes (“iSAFE”) through numbered classes; YourStory reported that Class 12 invested $2.7M across 18 companies chosen from more than 1,900 applicants and a 304-company shortlist, with a Pitch Day attended by over 400 investors. The firm is sector-agnostic and describes its instrument on 100x.vc. Venture Catalysts runs India’s largest angel and seed platform — more than 400 companies backed, with vehicles spanning idea stage (100 Unicorns), fintech growth and Series B/C — and raised ₹150 crore in September 2025, per Outlook Business; founders apply through its platform and are matched to its angel network.

Blume Ventures is the most transparent of the institutional funds about what it wants. Its site states a typical cheque of $1.5M–$3M for a 12–20% stake at seed and pre-Series A, a preference for introductions through portfolio founders, and an explicit acceptance of cold outreach provided it is a researched email to the one team member covering the relevant sector. It also publishes traction guidelines — roughly $375K annualised revenue for B2B or transactional businesses, approaching ₹50 lakh monthly GMV for marketplaces, about 25K MAU or 5K DAU for non-monetising consumer apps — and says it does not do idea-stage or pre-MVP deals for first-time founders. The wider Indian landscape, including Peak XV, Accel India and Elevation, which do not run open routes, is covered in the guide to the top VC firms in India and Southeast Asia.

Which Southeast Asian routes are open?

Antler’s Singapore and regional residencies, Iterative’s twice-yearly accelerator, East Ventures’ pitch page, Wavemaker’s inbox and Singapore’s Startup SG Founder grant are the verifiable open routes in 2026.

Antler announced new Singapore terms in January 2026: $100,000 for 10% via SAFE plus a $50,000 uncapped MFN SAFE, up to $250,000 of matching capital at 50% of institutional money raised, a six-week in-person residency, and a package the firm describes as up to $400,000 from inception, per the announcement. Residencies also run in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangalore, Tokyo, Seoul and the Australian cities, all through the same application form. Iterative, the YC-style accelerator for Southeast Asia, invests $150K–$500K on admission, runs three months, and takes applications for two batches a year at iterative.vc.

East Ventures, the most active seed investor in Indonesia, offers a “send your pitch” route through its contact page at east.vc, invests from seed to growth from offices in Singapore, Jakarta and Tokyo, and warns founders that WhatsApp and Telegram accounts claiming to represent the firm are fraudulent. Wavemaker Partners (Singapore, pre-seed to Series A, about $500M under management according to third-party trackers) asks for a concise email overview rather than a form.

On the public side, Startup SG Founder was revised in 2025–2026. Causo Hub’s 2026 guide summarises the current scheme: a grant of S$20,000 to S$50,000 matched 1:1 by the founders, at least half of the match held as paid-up capital at the time of application; two main applicants who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents, the first a full-time first-time founder; a Singapore private limited company incorporated less than six months before applying, with at least 51% citizen/PR ownership; and an application that goes first to an Accredited Mentor Partner for a letter of recommendation and only then to Enterprise Singapore. Some mentor partners take equity, so ask for terms in writing before you pitch.

What is open in Japan and South Korea?

In Japan, Coral Capital’s contact form is explicitly open to all entrepreneurs and Incubate Fund’s Incubate Camp runs an annual open entry; in Korea, TIPS routes government R&D grants of up to KRW 800 million through accredited private operators.

Coral Capital writes cheques from about ¥50 million to ¥3 billion from seed to Series D and states on its site that its door is open to every entrepreneur; founders use the contact page. Incubate Camp, run by Incubate Fund, is a two-day residential matching event: the 19th edition takes place on 29–30 October 2026 in Chiba, with entries accepted from 23 April to 17 August 2026, sixteen startups selected and matched with sixteen partner-level guest VCs, and pre-incorporation companies eligible, according to the PR Times release. Past participants from the 13th to 18th camps raised over ¥50 billion after the event. Techstars Tokyo also runs an application window (6 May 2026 for the last cycle, per Techstars’ April 2026 update).

TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup) is Korea’s defining open-application mechanism. KoreaTechDesk’s coverage of the 2026 reform describes a merged General/Deep-Tech/Global structure organised by growth stage, a maximum R&D grant rising from KRW 500 million to KRW 800 million (about $580,000), a Global TIPS tier combining R&D and commercialisation support of up to KRW 5 billion, a required pre-investment from the operating partner rising to KRW 200 million (KRW 100 million outside the Seoul region), and an expansion from 520 supported startups in 2025 to 620 in 2026. Founders do not apply to the government; they are nominated by one of the accredited TIPS operators — VCs, accelerators and corporate venture arms — after that operator invests. The practical route is therefore to apply to the operators (SparkLabs, Primer, Bluepoint, Mashup Angels, Kakao Ventures and several dozen others), and the foreign-founder rules vary by operator and year, so confirm them before planning a relocation.

The structural reasons Japan and Korea rely on state-adjacent programmes, and the role of the Korean Fund of Funds and Japan’s university funds, are discussed in the guide to VC firms in China, Japan and Korea and in why Japan has so few unicorns.

Which Gulf programmes accept applications?

Hub71 in Abu Dhabi, the Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global and Misk Accelerator in Saudi Arabia, and Flat6Labs’ country programmes run formal application cycles; Wa’ed Ventures and the Dubai Future District Fund invest directly but without a public form.

Hub71‘s Access programme, per its programme page, offers AED 250,000 in flexible in-kind incentives, AED 250,000 in cash for equity through a SAFE, and a possible further AED 250,000 for high performers who commit to Abu Dhabi, over a twelve-month programme that includes a three-month guided track powered by Techstars. It is open to pre-seed to Series A companies, and at least one founder must commit to relocating and building a team in Abu Dhabi. Cohort 21’s application deadline is February 2027, with review by April and a September 2027 start; late applications roll into the next cohort.

In Saudi Arabia, the Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global targets MENA tech startups with early traction; its Batch 12 closed applications on 9 August 2026 and runs from 27 September to 9 December 2026, per the programme site. Misk Accelerator, run by the Misk Foundation, is a twelve-week hybrid programme with in-person weeks in Riyadh, zero equity, no fee, open to all nationalities, for post-MVP tech companies with early traction that operate in or intend to scale into the Kingdom; the programme page lists two cohorts a year with application windows roughly December–February and August–September. Monsha’at‘s Tomoh programme is for later-stage growth companies — 20% annual growth for three consecutive years — rather than startups, and begins with a 145-question self-assessment on its platform, per Arab News. Wa’ed Ventures, Aramco’s $500M fund, invests from seed to Series C with tickets up to $20M, according to waed.net, but publishes no application form. The Dubai Future District Fund invests in VC funds and directly in startups with a Dubai or UAE presence, splitting direct deals between co-investments alongside its managers and gap-filling deep-tech deals, per its strategy page; it invites contact but runs no form. Flat6Labs lists active programmes in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine on flat6labs.com with an apply-now page, while its Saudi and UAE programmes were marked inactive at the time of review. The sovereign-LP backdrop to all of this is in the guide to VC firms in the Middle East, Turkey and Israel.

What are the open routes in Turkey?

TÜBİTAK’s BiGG Investment Programme (1,350,000 TL for 3% in the 2026-2 call), KOSGEB’s Entrepreneur Support Programme (up to 2 million TL), ITU Çekirdek’s incubation and Big Bang stage, Galata Business Angels, Startup Wise Guys Türkiye and 500 Emerging Europe are the verifiable routes; Revo Capital, Inveo, Boğaziçi Ventures and Earlybird Digital East take pitches by email and introduction.

TÜBİTAK BiGG is Turkey’s first investment-based entrepreneurship programme and its largest open door. The 2026-2 call works in two stages: founders first complete an acceleration track with an Implementing Organisation (ITU Çekirdek, university technoparks and accelerators), then submit a business plan to TÜBİTAK through the PRODİS system; those awarded the Seal of Excellence receive 1,350,000 TL from the BiGG Fund for 3% equity, can request up to a further 1,350,000 TL during monitoring, and — for the top three clean-tech plans under the UNIDO GCIP track — 2,250,000 TL for 5%. For the 2026-2 call, Stage 2 applications ran from 31 August to 30 September 2026, evaluations run 12 October to 20 November, winners are announced 24–27 November, companies must be set up and contracts signed by 31 December 2026, and support begins 1 January 2027; the next call should open in early 2027 and dates may move.

KOSGEB‘s Girişimci Destek Programı İş Geliştirme call offers up to 1.5 million TL at an 80% support rate per entrepreneur (plus 150,000 TL for women, young, disabled and veteran-family founders), repayable without interest after the 36-month programme, together with credit-finance support of up to 1 million TL in working capital with half the financing cost covered, for a total of up to 2 million TL; the 2026 second-period window ran 20 April to 8 May 2026, per Alomaliye’s summary of the call, and supported sectors are manufacturing, telecoms, software and IT consultancy, data processing and hosting, and scientific R&D. ITU Çekirdek, the Istanbul Technical University incubator, is both a BiGG implementing organisation and a programme in its own right: its {ext(‘https://itucekirdek.com/en/’, ‘English site’)} reports more than 2,100 supported startups, 434 of which have raised a combined $320 million, lists BiGG, Acceleration/Express and Growth programmes with an apply page, and runs the Big Bang Startup Challenge, whose top 50 startups meet investors each November; the 2024 edition reported a record ₺2.85 billion pool of awards, cash and investment commitments.

On the private side, Galata Business Angels takes applications through a form linked from its site and the Gust platform, then runs pre-screening, a mentor meeting and a Venture Academy pitch to members; it looks for early-stage tech companies with a product, a business model and some users or customers. 500 Emerging Europe (formerly 500 Istanbul) raised a second fund with a €70M hard cap, about 70% directed to Turkey, writing first tickets of up to €2M at pre-seed and seed, according to Unquote’s 2022 report; it sources largely through its network and events rather than a form. Startup Wise Guys runs Türkiye-specific programmes within its B2B track structure. Earlybird Digital East, Revo Capital, Inveo and Boğaziçi Ventures are active but do not publish application forms; approach them with a researched email and, where possible, an introduction from a portfolio founder, ITU Çekirdek or GBA. Keiretsu Forum’s Istanbul chapter screens companies through its members’ process; terms are not public.

How do the regional routes compare?

The table collects region, instrument, cheque, eligibility and the route, as published by each programme or firm in October 2026.

Sources: programme and firm pages plus cited reports, reviewed October 2026. Windows shown are the most recent published; next cycles typically follow the same calendar but must be confirmed.

What relocation and incorporation rules apply across the region?

Almost every public programme requires a local entity, and the Gulf residencies require a founder to move: Hub71 asks at least one founder to relocate long-term, Misk requires in-person weeks in Riyadh, SISFS requires DPIIT recognition of an Indian entity, Startup SG Founder requires a Singapore company with majority citizen/PR ownership, and BiGG and KOSGEB require a Turkish company before disbursement.

These rules interact with the US-centric programmes in a way founders often miss. YC requires a US, Canadian, Cayman or Singapore parent, which means an Indian or Turkish company that takes YC must flip — and flipping can break eligibility for SISFS or BiGG that was granted to the local entity. Antler’s US residencies require existing US work authorisation. Hub71’s cash SAFE is issued to the entity that commits to Abu Dhabi. The clean sequence is usually: local non-dilutive money first (SISFS, Startup SG, KOSGEB, Bourse-style grants), then a regional programme or angel round, then any flip required by a US programme, with tax advice at each step. The YC, Techstars and Antler guide sets out the flip requirement in detail, and the fundraising timeline guide shows how long each stage realistically takes.

Government programmes also carry monitoring obligations — BiGG’s monitoring period, KOSGEB’s 36-month programme, SISFS’s milestone-based tranches, Startup SG’s two-tranche drawdown within twelve months — that affect how fast a company can pivot or relocate. Read the call text, not the summary, and keep the obligations in the data room so later investors are not surprised; the virtual data room comparison covers how to organise it.

How should a founder in the region sequence these applications?

Start with the equity-free and lowest-dilution money available locally, run the regional programme or angel application in parallel, and approach the private funds that accept cold pitches only once there is a traction number that meets their published guideline.

For an Indian founder that means SISFS through an incubator while building toward Blume’s traction thresholds, with 100X.VC’s next class as the bridge. For a Singaporean first-time founder it means Startup SG Founder, then Antler or Iterative. For a Saudi-focused company it means Misk’s zero-equity programme first, then Sanabil-500, then Wa’ed or the regional funds. For a Turkish founder it means ITU Çekirdek or another implementing organisation as the entry point to BiGG, KOSGEB in parallel, then GBA and 500 Emerging Europe, with Earlybird Digital East and Revo as the Series A targets. In every case, the application itself is scored on the same six fields — one-liner, problem, traction, team, ask and deck — and the guide to what VC application forms screen for shows how to write them. The global list of open routes, including the US programmes that many regional founders apply to in parallel, is in the VC firms accepting open applications guide, and the European options are in the Europe and UK guide. Browse the full VCs Accepting Applications pillar for the companion guides.

Frequently Asked Questions