FFS

Fund of Funds for Start-ups (FFS) was unveiled by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on the January 16, 2016 in line with the Start-up India Action Plan. It has approved corpus of Rs 10,000 crore for contribution to various Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) registered with SEBI. Introduced with a focused objective of supporting development and growth of innovation driven enterprises, FFS facilitates funding needs for Start-ups through participation in capital of SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds. AIFs supported under FFS shall invest at least twice the contribution out of FFS, in Startups as defined by Government of India under Startup India, Standup India scheme vide Gazette Notification G.S.R.127 (E) dated February 19, 2019 and as amended from time to time.

Status of FFS as on March 31, 2025. is as below

The indicative process is as below for considering applications under FFS.

Venture Capital Investment Committee comprises of VC domain experts drawn across various industry verticals and the current composition of VCIC can be found here

Below are the key eligibility criteria for applying for contribution under FFS

• Funds are registered as either Category I or II Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) or have applied for the same with SEBI.
• Funds with corpus of less than Rs 1,000 crores.
• Fund`s investment strategy to include investment in startups (Startup as defined as per the Gazette Notification G.S.R.127(E) dt. 19/02/2019 issued by Government of India and as amended from time to time).
• Fund to agree to invest at least twice the amount of contribution sought from FFS into Startups. (For instance, if contribution sought is Rs 100 crore under FFS, Fund should invest at least Rs 200 crore in Startups).
• Fund Manager / team should have prior track record in Fund management or prior investment experience. All the Key members of the Fund should have CIBIL score more than 650 (Key member is defined as Director, Sponsor and Senior Personnel of the Fund).
• All the Key members should be legally eligible to be a Director or in a Managerial position under Indian law (i.e., not barred to be a Director or in a Managerial position under Indian Law).

Please note that merely qualifying the criteria does not guarantee sanction of contribution to the VC / PE fund, which will be considered on the merits of the case post submission of the application. Fund applications are accepted online here

In recognition of the efforts made by SIDBI in the venture capital ecosystem, Ministry of Commerce Industry, Government of India entrusted the management of Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to support various Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), which in turn would invest twice of SIDBI's contribution in start-up businesses