Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Government said on April 14 said that it had injected, announcing a fresh corpus of Rs 10,000 crore into the Startup India Fund, which was aimed at boosting venture and growth capital availability for startups across the country.
The move builds on the performance of the earlier Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS 1.0), which was launched in 2016 under the Startup India Action Plan to bridge funding gaps and catalyse domestic capital in the startup ecosystem. Under the new scheme, the Rs 10,000 crore corpus will be deployed through commitments to eligible Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) over the 16th and 17th Finance Commission cycles.
The Government expects the initiative to deepen capital access, especially for emerging and high-potential segments of the startup ecosystem. The fund will prioritise investments in sectors such as deep technology, early growth-stage startups backed by smaller AIFs, and technology-driven and innovative manufacturing ventures.
It will also support sector-agnostic and stage-agnostic startups, ensuring a broad-based approach to funding innovation. A structured selection mechanism has been put in place for choosing AIFs. A Venture Capital Investment Committee (VCIC), comprising experienced members from the startup ecosystem, will oversee the screening process.
In addition, an Empowered Committee (EC) will be constituted to monitor the scheme’s implementation and performance. The framework also includes provisions for co-investment by the government and institutional investors, with safeguards to ensure proper governance. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will issue detailed operational guidelines, including the composition of the VCIC, in due course.
