$15 Mn Fund Launched For North East Startups

North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) has set up a $15 Mn (INR 100 Cr) fund for startups. The venture fund aims to boost the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the North East region. The NE region includes eight states viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.

NEDFi has also inked an MOU with Ministry Of Development Of North Eastern Region, North East India. (Ministry of DoNER).

The initial focus will be on early and growth stage startups in IT/ ITES, food processing, healthcare, tourism, retail and aggregation of services. According to local media reports, the fund would also focus on investing in areas such as the development of new products and services, technological upgrade, expansion or diversification, process improvement and quality improvement with the purpose of creating value for all stakeholders.

As told by B. Paul Muktieh, Chairman & Managing Director of NEDFi to ET,  NEDFI will contribute INR 30 Cr while DoNER ministry will add INR 25 Cr to the fund corpus. The rest INR 25 Cr will be raised from other financial institutions. “If we do not get requisite support from institutions, NEDFi will contribute the balance amount,” he added.

The fund’s operations will be handled by NEDFi under two wholly owned subsidiary companies, NEDFi Trustee Ltd and NEDFi Venture Capital Ltd. These are expected to be launched in October this year, after getting SEBI approval.