India opens $ 306 m fund to help finance start-ups

Tuesday, 1 September 2015 00:34 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

MUMBAI (Reuters): The state-run Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) opened a fund-of-funds recently with initial capital of 20 billion Indian rupees ($ 306 million) to help finance local start-ups.

Life Insurance Corp of India, the nation’s biggest insurer, will partner with the India Aspiration Fund, and co-invest along with SIDBI in venture-capital funds, officials said.

Indian start-ups, mainly those in e-commerce, have attracted billions of dollars from foreign investors. Foreign capital was welcome, said Jayant Sinha, the federal minister of state for finance, but local venture capital needed to be strengthened to help finance start-ups other outside e-commerce.

He said the fund-of-funds can increase its capital to ‘as much as required’.