SIDBI VC to invest Rs 100 crore by March from its second SME fund

MUMBAI: SIDBI Venture Capital Fund, a subsidiary of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), is hoping to invest around Rs 100 crore by March end from its second SME-focused fund, India Opportunity Fund.

"We have started evaluating businesses for investment. Around Rs 70 crore has been sanctioned and another Rs 30 crore is likely to be sanctioned by March end," Chief Executive Officer, SIDBI Venture Capital, Ananta P Sarma told PTI.

India Opportunity Fund has a corpus of Rs 670 crore. Sarma also said that the fund house plans to invest around Rs 200 crore during the next fiscal.

The bank's first SME Growth Fund, with a corpus of Rs 500 crore had invested in the small and medium industries and is currently under divestment phase.

"We have already divested around 50 per cent of our total portfolio in the 'SME Growth Fund' with an average return of around 20 per cent," he said.

Sarma also said the first fund is likely to give an average return of around 15 per cent when totally divested.