Govt clears Rs 10,000 crore Startup India Fund of Funds 2.0 to boost early-stage, deep-tech startups

The government on Friday approved the second tranche of the Startup India Fund of Funds Scheme with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore, aimed at encouraging early-stage startups and deep-tech research, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a social media post.On his first day at Seva Teerth, his new office, PM Modi signed files linked to the empowerment of the poor, downtrodden, farmers, Yuva Shakti and Nari Shakti, PTI reported.The key decisions include “approval for a Startup India Fund of Funds 2.0 with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore,” the post said. Prime Minister Modi on Friday shifted to his new office Seva Teerth from the colonial-era South Block building near Rashtrapati Bhavan on Raisina Hill. The move coincided with February 13, marking 95 years since the formal inauguration of New Delhi as India’s modern capital in 1931.The government had constituted a Fund of Funds worth Rs 10,000 crore in 2016 to provide seed capital and enable startups to take calculated risks.Following the utilisation of the first tranche, a second phase of Rs 10,000 crore was sanctioned in the Union Budget for 2025-26.So far, more than 2 lakh entities have been recognised as startups by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). These entities are eligible for incentives under the Startup India action plan.The scheme was designed to catalyse venture capital investments and is operationalised by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), which provides capital to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)-registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), which in turn invest in startups.AIFs supported under the Fund of Funds Scheme (FFS) are required to invest at least two times the amount committed under FFS in startups.DPIIT is the monitoring agency, while SIDBI is the operating agency for the FFS.