Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds Scheme to focus on manufacturing high-tech startups: DPIIT Secretary
Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Amardeep Singh Bhatia has said that the newly announced Rs 10,000-crore Fund of Funds Scheme (FFS) for startups, unveiled in the Budget, will focus on manufacturing and high-technology sectors, which require longer-term funding. He said this new scheme would be an entirely different fund that will address the needs of startups that lie between those dealing with high-end technology and the ones focussed on improving public service delivery.
Bhatia said the first series of FFS has helped in building the AIF (alternate investment fund) ecosystem in the country, which provided much-needed capital to startups. For the second series, announced in the Budget, he said ‘we already had consultations with AIFs, with SIDBI...We expect that this should help in covering the large spectrum of startups which need longer duration of funds, which need different types of funding beyond the equity infusion’.
He stated that the new scheme would not be topping up the already functional FFS. Through the first FFS launched in 2016 investment of more than Rs 21,700 crore has already been catalysed by AIFs in more than 1,180 startups. These AIFs are mobilising a corpus of around Rs 91,000 crore by raising funds from other investors.
