Former Home Secretary GK Pillai to head venture cap fund for IIT, IIM graduates

NEW DELHI: Former Home Secretary GK Pillai has become the chairman of a first-of-its-kind venture capital fund that will focus exclusively on financing ideas and ventures of graduates from IITs, IIMs and other premier institutes. Unlike other venture funds, 5% of the fund's profits will be ploughed back into the educational institutions chosen by the investors.

Mumbai-based Ivy Cap Ventures Trust Fund has roped in Pillai, an IIT-Madras alumni, to head its board through the IITian old boys' network.

"We will be looking to fund early stage ideas and small and medium enterprises across all sectors with a focus on education, healthcare, technology and innovation," Pillai told ET, confirming his decision to join IvyCap.

Apart from Pillai, IvyCap's board includes deans of four IITs, HCL Technologies' co-founder Arjun Malhotra and former BSE president Bhagirath Merchant.

The fund had got Sebi's nod to raise money in June and aims to garner a 400 crore corpus in its first phase by March 2013. The IIT Alumni Trust is the anchor investor in the fund, with a commitment to finance around 20% of the total corpus.

The fund expects to close its first tranche of fund-raising - around 100 crore - by December this year. The fund would announce a couple of investments soon after that.

The founder and managing partner of IvyCap, Vikram Gupta said the fund was building a close connection with the IITs as it can help tap into all the interesting projects underway in incubation centers across IITs. "We may look at a similar approach with the IIMs as well," Gupta told ET from the IIM Ahmedabad campus.

"Several IITians have already approached our fund with their ideas and projects that need funds for expansion. We hope to raise funds and start investing in such professional entrepreneurs as soon as we can," Pillai said.