MD Speak
Welcome to IFCI Venture Capital Funds Ltd., a non-deposit taking systematically important NBFC (NBFC-ND-SI) and the Venture Capital subsidiary of IFCI Ltd.
IFCI Ltd., as you would be aware, is India’s first Development Financial Institution (DFI) which was established under an Act of Parliament in 1948 and has played an active role in the economic development of the country. IFCI Venture was set up in 1975 with the objective to broaden entrepreneurship base in India by providing risk capital mainly to first generation entrepreneurs under “Risk Capital Scheme”.
IFCI Venture is presently managing 3 SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) viz. Venture Capital fund for Scheduled Castes (VCF-SC), Venture Capital fund for Backward Classes (VCF-BC) and Sage Venture Fund. The funds are initiatives of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE), Government of India for which IFCI Venture is the Investment Manager.
VCF-SC and VCF-BC funds are first of its kind Venture Capital Funds in India dedicated to promote entrepreneurship among the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes by providing concessional finance to them. As on date, the corpus of VCFSC and VCFBC funds stands at Rs. 683 crore and Rs.131.75 crore respectively. Recently, Government of India has mandated IFCI Venture to manage the ‘Sage Venture Fund’ also. MoSJE in order to promote Silver Economy (Senior Citizen Economy), is committed towards providing innovative and out-of-the-box solutions for the commonly faced problems by Senior Citizens through promoting start-ups which innovate on products, processes and services for the elderly. Accordingly, under Sage Venture Fund, start-ups providing innovative and out-of-the-box solutions shall be provided the equity support. The target corpus of this fund is Rs 105 crore.
It has also managed its erstwhile funds viz. India Automotive Component Manufacturers Private Equity Fund-1-Domestic (IACM-I-D), Green India Venture Fund (GIVF) and India Enterprise Development Fund (IEDF), with an aggregate corpus of Rs.508 crore. The erstwhile funds are closed since June 2019.
IFCI Venture is continuously tapping further opportunities in PE/ VC space. The proposed funds in line are Small & Medium Enterprises Advantage Fund (SMEAF) and Green India Venture Fund II (GIVF-II) etc.