The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on Friday held discussions with alternate investment funds (AIFs) here on ways to promote funding for startups in the country, an official said. The official added that a number of AIFs participated in the deliberations.
Issues like capital mobilisation and promoting funding for startups in smaller cities were discussed during the meeting, the official said.
Under the Centre’s Fund of Funds Scheme (FFS), support is extended to Sebi-registered AIFs, which in turn invest in startups.
The FFS was announced with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore. The corpus is to be built up over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission Cycles (2016-2020 and 2021-2025) through budgetary support by the DPIIT.
Another official said these AIFs have committed to invest Rs 1 lakh crore in startups and they have already pumped in over Rs 20,000 crore so far.
Among the prominent AIFs of leading startup investment firms supported under FFS are Chiratae Ventures, India Quotient, Blume Ventures, IvyCap, Waterbridge, Omnivore, Aavishkaar, JM Financial, and Fireside Ventures.
AIFs supported under FFS are required to invest at least two times the amount committed under FFS in startups.
As on October 31, 2024, a total of Rs 20,572.14 crore has been invested by the FFS-supported AIFs in startups.
