YourNest raises corpus of first fund to Rs 120 crore

BANGALORE: Taking advantage of the recent taxation and regulatory policies announced last month, YourNest, India’s first Sebi-registered angel fund — with only HNIs as limited partners — has raised the corpus of its first fund to Rs 120-crore ($21 million), up from its earlier stated target of Rs 100-crore ($17.6 million).

According to fund’s managers, the decision to raise the corpus of the fund came after the country’s market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India released its 2012 regulations that extend the pass-through tax benefit to Category I alternate investment funds, including those that are focussed on start-ups, social ventures, infrastructure and early-stage ventures.

“The government has acknowledged angel investors having a positive spill-over effect on the economy. Separately, with long-term capital gain tax rates being brought down to 10%, and at par with foreign institutional investors, we decided to take advantage of the new regulations, and increase the fund corpus,” Sunil Goyal, CEO and fund manager, YourNest, said.