The Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement that Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS), launched under Startup India initiative in 2016 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has committed Rs. 7,385 crore to 88 Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs). These AIFs in turn have invested Rs. 11,206 crore in 720 startups. FFS has been playing a monumental role in mobilizing domestic capital in the Indian startup ecosystem.
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 the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
Under FFS, support is extended to SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), which in turn invest in startups.
As per the ministry, FFS has not only made capital available for startups at early stage, seed stage and growth stage but also played a catalytic role in facilitating raising of domestic capital, reducing dependence on foreign capital and encouraging home grown and new venture capital funds. 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% since the launch of the Scheme.
FFS has helped anchor 67 AIFs out of 88 AIFs supported and 38 of these are first time fund managers which is in line with FFS’s core objective of anchoring venture capital investments for Indian startups, the ministry said.
Investments into eligible startups are approximately 3.7 times of FFS disbursements which are well above the minimum stipulated 2 times under the Scheme. Performing startups supported through FFS are showing valuation increase by more than 10 times with a number of them even achieving unicorn status (valuation of over USD 1 billion).
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