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Self Reliant India Fund (SRI) Fund, a Rs 10,000 crore Alternative Investment Fund to address the paucity of growth funding faced by MSMEs, was set up by the Government of India as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. The Fund has a Mother Fund-Daughter Fund structure wherein SRI Fund, as Mother Fund, invests up to 20% of the corpus of Daughter Fund and Daughter Funds raise balance 80% of the capital from outside sources. Thus, the contribution of Rs. 10,000 crore of SRI Fund gets leveraged by 5 times and the total value of investible funds into MSMEs would be Rs. 50,000 crore.

MSMEs have been playing a crucial role in kindling an entrepreneurial spirit in rural economies, generating employment, contributing to achieving ‘Atmanirbharta’ and India’s $5 trillion economy target. The Fund aims to address the current capital gap and catalyse the flow of capital to the MSME sector by providing capital to Daughter Funds to invest into MSMEs as growth capital.

SRI Fund commenced operations in October 2021 and has since then provided approvals to 38 Daughter Funds with commitment amount of more than Rs. 5,000 crore. SRI Fund has thus committed over 50% of its target corpus size in just one year of its operations, making it one of the fastest growing Funds in the country. The funds committed by SRI Fund, on deployment by the Daughter Funds, have already benefitted more than 125 MSMEs supporting employment to more than 20,000 people.

Daughter Funds empanelled with SRI Fund include TATA Capital Healthcare Fund, Aavishkaar India Fund, SVL-SME Fund, Gaja Capital India Fund, Avaana Sustainability Fund, ICICI Ventures’s India Advantage Fund S5 I, Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund 3, Fireside Ventures Investment Fund III, Nabventures Fund 1, Maharashtra Defence and Aerospace Venture Fund among others.

As it completes the first anniversary, SRI Fund has further streamlined its operations by launching a unique technology platform to establish a transparent and standardized procedure for Daughter Funds to efficiently seek investment from SRI Fund. With the launch of this Tech platform, SRI Fund is providing a seamless and transparent online platform which will facilitate meaningful Mother Fund-Daughter Fund interactions and will also assist in compliances and reporting both for statutory and administrative purposes. This will catalyse effective operations of the Fund. The rollout of the Tech Platform will be in phases to ensure effortless blending in the operations of the Fund.

Commenting on the first year anniversary of SRI Fund, Mr. Gaurang Dixit, CMD, NSIC and Chairman NVCFL, said that “The successful first year anniversary of SRI Fund augments Government of India’s efforts in expanding and diversifying mobilisation of capital for MSME businesses. An increased capital pool will definitely help enterprises reach their full potential and graduate beyond the MSME bracket and become National / International Champions”

Commenting on the impact achieved by SRI Fund in its first year, Mr. Amitava Chatterjee, MD & CEO, SBI CAPITAL MARKETS, said that “In its first year of operations, SRI Fund through its empanelled Daughter Funds has already helped provide equity funding of more than Rs 2,300 Cr to more than 125 MSMEs across diverse sectors such as climate, agriculture, defence, education, pharma and industrials.”

Commenting on the launch of the tech-platform, Mr. Suresh Kozhikote, MD & CEO SBICAP Ventures said, “We are happy to be launching a first of its kind technology platform on the first year anniversary of SRI Fund. The tech platform launch further builds on SRI Fund’s standardized approval process to ensure highest levels of integrity and transparency with efficiency for maximizing the scale of impact. ”