Day One Ventures, a venture firm, has set up a programme termed as “Funded not fired” under which it will write $100,000 checks (around ₹81 lakh) to 20 startup teams by the end of the year.

“With Funded, not Fired, you’ll get your first institutional angel check. Over the next month, we’re selecting 20 founders to invest in and support. Whether you have an idea already or not, let’s get to work,” the firm wrote on its website dedicated for the application process.

Top businesses from the group will then be shortlisted to get follow-up capital from Day One Ventures’ responsibility to manage their pre-seed round with a $1 million check.

The venture firm will give $5 million (and at most $10 million) from its $52.5 million fund in total to support those laid-off employees from companies like Meta, Twitter and Amazon.

Founder Masha Bucher, who herself was laid-off, says, “Being laid off was the best thing that ever happened to me. I started my first and second companies after being laid off from previous jobs (both companies ended up shutting down just a couple years later).”

The company states that they are inspired by Jeff Bezos’ Day One philosophy. “Our name reminds us to live every day and make every decision as if it is Day One.”

The application process is live now and will go on till November 25th. The selected participant will undergo interviews and subsequent assessment. The firm plans to send money by the end of this year.

There is an accelerated surge of job-cuts in big tech companies in recent times. Amazon.com Inc. is planning to lay off 10,000 workers by this week. Meta Inc. has cut 13% of their workforce. Elon Musk owned Twitter earlier this month fired about half of its 7,500 employees.