Under the Startup India programme government of India has disbursed Rs.2,900 crores, turning into almost four times as much funding to popular ventures such as Unacademy, Dunzo, CureFit, Zostel, FreshToHome, Uniphore, Jumbotail, Zetwerk, and others. The government’s funds of funds for Startups distributed this money to 63 Sebi-registered private AIFs (Alternate Investment Funds), which in turn invested about Rs.11,206 crores into 720 startup firms. “Performing startups who are supported through FFS are showing great valuation increase of more than 10 times and few of them even achieving unicorn status,” Said in a statement by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Under the start-up India Initiative, the Fund of Funds for startups was launched in 2016. It has committed a sum of Rs 7,385 crore to 88 AIFs and has a corpus of Rs. 10,000 crores. Some of the leading AIFs that are backed by FFS in India are Blume Ventures, Quotient, Fireside Ventures, Waterbridge, JM Financial, Chirtate Ventures, IvyCap, Omnivore and Aavishkaar. The investments made by the AIFs in 3,7 times higher than the government’s disbursements under the scheme – far higher than the minimum stipulated two times.
