Ever since the Centre launched the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with a corpus of $1.5 Bn (INR 10K Cr) in January 2016, the DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), and selected alternate investment funds (AIFs) have been aiming at maximum disbursal of the allotted funds till 2025.
Though the initial fund disbursement was low, since the beginning of 2018, the AIFs have accelerated startup investments under the Fund of Funds.
In early 2018, it was reported that DIPP has released $76.9 Mn (INR 500 Cr) to SIDBI in FY16 and $15.3 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in FY17.
These numbers were really low considering that the entire Fund of Funds corpus has been earmarked for allocation across two finance commission cycles (2015-2020 and 2021-2025).
