Self-Reliant India Fund Catalyses Investment of Nearly Rs. 3,000 Crore in MSMEs

#SRIFund #MSMEs #InvestmentFund #NarayanRane

Source: SRI Fund

“MSMEs face multiple challenges ranging from hiring talent to accessing capital at an affordable rate. SRI Fund addresses these challenges and supports them to break barriers, encourage corporatization and achieve their full potential.” - Narayan Rane, Minister of MSME, Government of India

January 2023: Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund, a Rs 10,000 crore Alternative Investment Fund, set up under the Government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative recently concluded ‘Pravah’, a Limited Partner – General Partner meet, which was graced by the Minister of MSME, Narayan Rane. SRI Fund is managed by SBICAP Ventures (SVL), the private equity arm of the State Bank of India which currently has over Rs.32,500 Cr in assets under management.

B.B Swain, Secretary MSME and Dinesh Khara, Chairman, State Bank of India and other dignitaries from the Ministry of MSME, NSIC, NVCFL and the SBI Group were also present at the event. Other participants were Mercy Epao, CMD, National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), Amitava Chatterjee, MD & CEO, SBI Capital Markets and representatives from JICA, Temasek, Proparco, FCDO, BII, NIIF, Waterfield Advisors, Kotak FoF and other domestic and global institutional investors. Also present at the event was SRI Fund’s extended ecosystem including esteemed limited partners, empanelled daughter funds and recipient MSMEs. Panel discussions held during Pravah, threw light on insights on investing opportunities in the MSME sector, approach to navigating a volatile market, and domestic limited partner’s posing as catalysts for the growth of the MSME sector.

Established in October 2021, SRI Fund has a Mother Fund-Daughter Fund structure, wherein SRI Fund, as the Mother Fund, invests up to 20 percent of the corpus of Daughter Fund and Daughter Funds raise balance 80 percent of the capital from outside sources. Some of the Daughter Funds empanelled with the Fund include Tata Capital Healthcare Fund, Aavishkaar India Fund, SVL-SME Fund, Gaja Capital India Fund, Avaana Sustainability Fund and ICICI Ventures’ India Advantage Fund S5 I.

Narayan Rane, Minister of MSME, Government of India, said, “MSMEs face multiple challenges ranging from hiring talent to accessing capital at an affordable rate. SRI Fund addresses these challenges and supports them to break barriers, encourage corporatization and achieve their full potential. Until now, SRI Fund has supported employment for more than 25,000 people, out of which, 20 percent are women.”

Dinesh Khara, Chairman SBI, said, “SBI has always recognised MSMEs as an important pillar of the economy contributing to a third of the country’s GDP. SBI, through SVL, is proud to be managing the SRI Fund which is now seen as a catalytic force in the Indian LP ecosystem with investments of Rs. 3,000 Cr in over 140 MSMEs (90 percent are in the micro and small category) made through its daughter Funds.”

B. B. Swain, Secretary, MSME, said, “To address the unresolved need of capital of MSMEs, India needed to identify pools of equity risk capital which could be further leveraged to create a multiplier effect on the economy. Keeping this in mind, the Government of India launched SRI Fund to invest in PE/VC Funds, who would in-turn raise 4 times additional capital from other investors. Over the term of SRI Fund, it is expected to catalyse Rs. 50,000 Cr investment in more than 2,500 MSMEs.”

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