Startup Fund Gets Rs 10,000 Crore

In a push to the government’s Startup India campaign, the union cabinet has recently approved Rs 10,000 crore ‘Fund of Funds for Startups’ to support them with an aim to generate employment for 18 lakh persons.

“The fund is expected to generate employment for 18 lakh persons on full deployment... A corpus of Rs 10,000 crore could potentially be the nucleus for catalysing Rs 60,000 crore of equity investment and twice as much debt investment,” an official statement said.

The Cabinet has approved the establishment of ‘Fund of Funds for Startups’ (FFS) at Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for contribution to various Alternative Investment Funds (AIF), registered with Sebi which would extend funding support to startups, the statement added. “This would provide a stable and predictable source of funding for startup enterprises and thereby facilitate large scale job creation,” the sources added.

Further provisions will be made as grant assistance through gross budgetary support by DIPP which will monitor and review performance in line with the ‘Start up India Action Plan’.

With the Centre approving Rs 10,000 crore 'Fund of Funds for Startups', the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has ramped up its start-up funding operations to boost the sector. "SIDBI has ramped up the start-up funding operations to boost 'Start-up India' initiative with the launch of funds like unique India Aspiration Fund and Fund of Funds operations," SIDBI Chairman and Managing Director Kshatrapati  Shivaji said.

The lender has so far supported 95 funds, including 11 regional funds, with an aggregate commitment of Rs 2,576 crore. "The Cabinet's approval for establishing FFS will help enhance the scale of operations under its Fund of Funds activities with a deeper engagement with startup ecosystem and boost ambitious Startup India initiative."SIDBI would be using its expertise built over the years and address major challenges being faced by startups in the country at present," he said. "Under FFS, Rs 500 crore has already been released to the corpus in FY 2016 and Rs 600 crore has been earmarked for FY 2017 by the government," he added. Based on drawal of around Rs 1,065 crore, so far from the aggregate commitment, these funds have invested in 714 enterprises with an equity support of Rs 9,520 crore out of which Rs 4,794 crore were invested in 604 MSMEs, a bank statement said. In line with the objectives of Startup India Action Plan and to accelerate its operations, the Venture Capital Investment Committee (VCIC) has considered proposals from 16 venture capital funds for contribution under the proposed FFS, the CMD added. "Out of 16 venture capital funds, SIDBI has already committed Rs 215 crore to 5 venture capital funds with aggregate corpus of Rs 2,200 crore. Contribution to balance 11 venture capital funds are under different stages of sanction, for sanction of Rs 394 crore", he added.

Features: EN Team