Fund Of Funds Commits INR 9,500 Cr To Aid Startups: SIDBI Chairman

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) chairman S Ramann has said that the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) had committed INR 9,500 Cr for the promotion of new ventures in the country. 

Addressing the TiEcon Delhi 2024, Ramann said that this commitment has led to over 100 AIFs raising more than INR 56,000 Cr. “It’s really a staggering figure. The ability of all of you (AIFs) to go out and bring in that kind of money from your foreign limited partners (LPs) convince the Indians to become LPs,” he said.

The FFS was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 under the Startup India initiative. The fund has an approved corpus of INR 10,000 Cr for contribution to various alternative investment funds (AIFs) registered with SEBI.

The SIDBI-led fund has already backed startups hailing from industries such as deeptech, agritech, healthtech, fintech and sustainability.

This announcement comes shortly after CRISIL’s observation that as of November 2023, the government already facilitated investments worth INR 17,534 Cr in 938 unique Indian startups since 2016, through the fund. 

The study further added that the pumped capital to the tune of INR 1,590 Cr in 129 startups beyond Tier-I cities. Under the scheme, commitments have been sanctioned for 129 alternative investment funds (AIFs) across segments. 

In addition, the study revealed that as many as 18 startups in the FoFs’ portfolio have become unicorns.

Last year, in September Anicut Capital secured an investment of INR 50 Cr from the fund for its Anicut Equity Fund. 

Also, earlier this year, SIDBI signed a pact with the Bihar government to administer the INR 50 Cr Bihar Startup Scale-up Financing Fund (BSSFF) with an aim to transform the state into a startup hub.