Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) said it has tied up with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for augmenting capital support to enterprises in the country. The idea behind tying up with the state-run insurance behemoth is to give a boost to the venture capital ecosystem for MSMEs, it said.

Under fund of funds operations, SIDBI handles various schemes, namely India Aspiration Fund (corpus of Rs 2,000 crore, ASPIRE Fund (Rs 60 crore) and Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) (Rs 10,000 crore).

In April 2016, SIDBI and LIC had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to supplement funds under India Aspiration Fund. Under the MoU, the insurance major had earmarked an amount of Rs 200 crore for investment. Under the MOU, as part of first phase, LIC and SIDBI signed Contribution Agreements on January 03 in New Delhi with 7 Venture Capital Funds (VCFs), with an aggregate commitment of Rs 99.50 crore from LIC. This is over and above commitment of Rs 162.75 crore already given to these funds by SIDBI. In order to bring more professional outlook, SIDBI constituted a Venture Capital Investment Committee (VCIC).

The panel comprises experts such as H K Mittal (head, National Science & Tech Entrepreneurship Development Board), Kiran Karnik (former Nasscom chief), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (founder, naukri.com), Saurabh Srivastava (co-founder Nasscom and Indian Angel Network), Prof R Vaidyanathan (from IIM, Bangalore) and T V Mohandas Pai (former CFO, Infosys). Commitments made by SIDBI in fiscal years 2015 and 2016 were Rs 314.40 (11 funds) and Rs 606.75 crore (19 funds), respectively.

In the current fiscal, SIDBI has so far accorded formal sanction to 20 Alternative Investment Funds with aggregate commitments of Rs 714 crore. In addition, there are cases cleared by VCIC which are under detailed appraisal and due diligence, said the company, a dedicated financial agency catering to the needs of MSMEs.

After constitution of VCIC in July 2015, out of 40 cases recommended by the panel, 32 funds have already been given final sanction by SIDBI for an aggregate commitment of Rs 1,006.75 crore out of which 19 funds had announced first closing and have commenced investments.

Source: Money Control