Govt sets up venture fund to promote startups in the North East

The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi), in collaboration with the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (M-DoNER) is setting up the North East Venture Fund, a dedicated venture capital fund for the region, to encourage startup ventures in the northeast region.

The size of the fund would be Rs 100 crore, which would be contributed by M-DoNER (Rs 45 crore) and NEDFi (Rs 30 crore). The balance amount of Rs 25 crore would be raised from other financial institution(s). In this connection, NEDFi has already set up two wholly-owned subsidiary companies viz. NEDFi Trustee Ltd and NEDFi Venture Capital Ltd to operationalise the venture fund which is expected to be launched by October, 2016, after the same is registered with SEBI, an official release said.

The focus of the fund will be on early and growth-stage investments, mostly in the fields of IT & ITES, food processing, healthcare, tourism, retail and aggregation of services.

NEDFi has been playing a proactive role in entrepreneurship development in the north eastern region, providing handholding support like capacity building, market linkages and advisory/mentoring services to entrepreneurs including the much needed financial assistance to first generation entrepreneurs at concessional rate of interest, the release added.

Also read : Govt plans venture fund to promote startups in Northeast

A three-day mega Northeast festival was held in February at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi to showcase the vast resource and potential of the Northeastern States, Minister of State for DoNER Jitendra Singh said while inaugurating Start Up India 2016.

We believe that India’s economic future lies in encouraging startups which will bring dynamism, new thinking and create jobs, the Minister said.

Israel’s Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said startups can grow almost anywhere, but in order to really cultivate them an ecosystem has to be in place.