New Delhi, Sept 27 (KNN) As of September 24, 2022, the government has committed Rs. 7,385 crore under Fund of Funds for Startup (FFS) India Investment for 88 Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), said Ministry of Commerce & Industry in a statement.

Under FFS, support is extended to SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), which in turn invest in startups. These AIFs have so far invested Rs. 11,206 crore in 720 startups.

The FFS launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been playing a monumental role in mobilizing domestic capital in Indian startup ecosystem. It has not only made capital available for startups at early stage, seed stage and growth stage but also played a catalytic role in terms of facilitating raising of domestic capital, reducing dependence on foreign capital and encouraging home grown and new venture capital funds.

FFS was announced with a corpus of Rs. 10,000 crore. The corpus is to be built up over 14th and 15th Finance Commission Cycles (FY 2016-2020 and FY 2021-2025) through budgetary support by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India.

Collectively, the AIFs supported by FFS have a target corpus of over Rs. 48,000 crore. 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, Fireside Ventures, and more.

The amount committed under FFS has seen a notable growth over the years recording a CAGR of over 21 per cent in since the launch of the Scheme. Furthermore, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) which is responsible for operationalising the Scheme has undertaken a series of reforms recently to expedite the drawdowns to enable AIFs assisted under FFS to avail accelerated drawdowns.

This has created a positive impact and have resulted in year on year (Q1 FY 2021-22 vis-à-vis Q1 FY 2022-23) surge of 100 per cent in the amount of drawdowns.   (KNN Bureau)