Fund of Funds commits Rs 9,500 crore for startups, says Sidbi chairman

SIDBI chairman S Ramann on Friday said that the Fund of Funds for Start-ups (FFS) has committed Rs 9,500 crore for the promotion of new ventures in the country.

The FFS was unveiled by the Prime Minister on January 16, 2016, in line with the Start-up India Action Plan. It has approved a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore for contribution to various Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) registered with SEBI.

Introduced with a focused objective of supporting development and growth of innovation-driven enterprises, FFS facilitates funding needs for start-ups through participation in the capital of SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Funds.

The commitment of Rs 9500 crore has led to over 100 AIFs raising Rs 56,000 crore more, he said at TiEcon Delhi 2024 conference here.
 

"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.

Observing that AIFs space is getting more exciting, he said, there is still a lot of money to be tapped by fund managers.

Easy exit and further ease of doing business could help more capital to flow in from offshore, he said.

The interim budget for 2024-25 has proposed to extend the tax benefit offered to Startups, sovereign and pension funds, and certain investment units located at the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City by one year till March 31, 2025.

"Certain tax benefits to start-ups and investments made by sovereign wealth or pension funds as also tax exemption on certain income of some IFSC units are expiring on 31.03.2024. To provide continuity in taxation, I propose to extend the date to 31.03.2025," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech last month.