109 startups have received funding under Fund of Funds: Chaudhary

More than 100 startups in the country have received funding under the government's Fund of Funds (FFS) corpus with catalysed investment of Rs 517.92 crore, Parliament was informed today. The Fund of Funds for startups with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore is to be released over two Finance Commission cycles, i.E, by the year 2025, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry CR Chaudhary said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

He added total commitments under FFS stand at Rs 1,050.7 crore to 24 Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs), while drawdown by AIFs is Rs 122.86 crore. "109 startups have received funding under FFS with catalysed investment of Rs 517.92 crore," the minister pointed out.
Chaudhary said Rs 500 crore has been released to SIDBI in FY16 and Rs 100 crore in FY17.

He noted that 423 facilitators for Patent and Design and 596 facilitators for Trademark applications have been empanelled to assist startups in filing of patents and trademarks. He said patent filing has also been made faster for startups and accordingly, 126 startups have been facilitated. Also, 768 applications have received rebate of upto 80 per cent on patent fees and have also received legal assistance. "Trademark facilitation has been extended to 858 startups as of January 2018," Chaudhary said.