North East establishes venture capital fund for start-ups

The Dollar Business Bureau

The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (NEDFi), in association with the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (M-DoNER) will set up the North East Venture Fund to encourage startups in the northeast region.

This dedicated venture capital fund will have a total size of Rs.100 crore, which will be shared by M-DoNER (Rs 45 crore) and NEDFi (Rs 30 crore). The remaining Rs.25 crore would be obtained from other financial institutions.

NEDFi has already established two wholly-owned subsidiary companies, i.e. NEDFi Trustee Ltd. and NEDFi Venture Capital Ltd. to operationalise the venture fund. The fund is expected to be floated by October this year after it is registered with SEBI.

The fund will be focused on growth-stage investments, primarily in IT & ITES, aggregation of services, food processing, healthcare, retail and tourism.

NEDFi has of late been instrumental in developing entrepreneurship and providing support such as capacity building, advisory/mentoring and market linkages services to startups. It also provides financial assistance to entrepreneurs at concessional rate of interest.

Speaking at the Northeast festival held in New Delhi earlier this year, Minister of State for DoNER Jitendra Singh said, “We believe that India’s economic future lies in encouraging startups which will bring dynamism, new thinking and create jobs.”