NEW DELHI: Under Startup India Initiative recognized startups have been exempted under several sections of IT Act. The Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) was approved by the Cabinet and established by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade(DPIIT) in June 2016 with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to provide a much needed boost to the Indian startup ecosystem and enable access to domestic capital.
The objectives of Fund of Funds include accelerating innovation driven entrepreneurship and business creation, mobilizing larger equity-like resources for startups.The Fund of Funds does not directly invest in start-ups but provides capital to SEBI-registered Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs), known as daughter funds, who in turn invest money in growing Indian startups through equity and equity-linked instruments. SIDBI has been given the mandate of managing this Fund through selection of suitable daughter funds and overseeing the disbursal of committed capital.
As on 21st November, 2019, SIDBI has committed Rs 3123.20 Cr. to 47 SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs). These funds have raised a corpus fund of Rs. 25,728 Crore. Rs. 695.94 Crore have been drawn from the Fund of Funds for start-ups. Rs. 2,669.83 Crore have been invested into 279 startups. There is no provision for State/UT-wise distribution of funds under FFS.
2,85,890 jobs are reported by 23,657 DPIIT recognized start-ups, as on 4th December 2019. The breakup of the number of start-ups with number of employees State/UT-wise is attached at Annexure-II.
