Startup FoF commits Rs 7,385 cr to 88 AIFs as of Sept 24: Govt

The government on Monday said that the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS), launched under Startup India initiative in 2016 with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore, has committed Rs 7,385 crore to 88 Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) as of September 24, 2022. These AIFs in turn have invested Rs 11,206 crore in 720 startups. FFS has helped anchor 67 AIFs out of 88 supported and 38 of these are first time fund managers.

“FFS has been playing a monumental role in mobilizing domestic capital in Indian startup ecosystem,” the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.

Dunzo, CureFit, FreshToHome, Jumbotail, Unacademy, Uniphore, Vogo, Zostel and Zetwerk are some of the notable startups funded through FFS, according to the statement.

“Collectively, the AIFs supported by FFS have a target corpus of over Rs 48,000 crore,” the ministry said, adding that Chiratae Ventures, India Quotient, Blume Ventures, IvyCap, Waterbridge, Omnivore, Aavishkaar, JM Financial, and Fireside Ventures, are among the prominent AIFs of leading startup investment firms supported under FFS.

The amount committed under FFS has grown at a CAGR of over 21% in since the launch of the scheme and there has been a 100% surge in the amounts of drawdown in the first quarter of FY23 as against the year ago period.

As per the statement, investments into eligible startups is approximately 3.7 times of FFS disbursements which is well above the minimum stipulated two times under the scheme.