CM Yogi Adityanath launches 'UP Start-up Fund', to be managed by SIDBI

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Wednesday launched the ‘UP Start-up Fund’ to be managed by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

The fund has been set up under the UP Information Technology and Start-up Policy 2017.

Amid the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the UP government and SIDBI, the CM handed over cheque of the initial contribution of Rs 15 crore towards the Fund.

“Due to the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the start-up culture is picking up in India. The PM envisions the youth as job creators,” he said on the occasion. Adityanath further noted that UP had unlimited start-up potential and offered huge opportunities in different sectors, including agriculture, health, education, IT, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) etc, to create large scale job opportunities.

He also stressed upon the promotion of youth centric programmes  - Start-up India, Stand-up India and Make in India for greater traction.

The fund will be in the form of Fund of Funds. In this model, the fund will not be invested directly into start-ups, rather it will participate in Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approved Alternative Investment Funds. It will be professionally managed, with SIDBI acting as the fund manager.

Earlier, the state government had announced that it would create the start-up fund with a corpus of Rs 1,000 to establish new business ventures and nurture entrepreneurship among the youth.

Amid the heavy influx of migrant labourers from other states following lockdown, Adityanath observed the state government was looking to harness their skills by providing them jobs suited to their profiles.

Meanwhile, the government is looking at setting up the country’s largest incubation hub in Lucknow, apart from an incubation centre each at the 75 districts of the state. The fund will aim at supporting the registered start-up ventures across different verticals in UP. The Fund will operate for a period of 12 years.

Currently, 18 incubators and more than 1,800 start-ups are operational in the state. In 2018, the Centre had anointed UP as ‘Inspiring Leader’ in the start-up rankings of the different states. UP Electronics Corporation is the nodal agency for developing the start-up ecosystem.

 

Meanwhile, SIDBI, the principal financial institution engaged in the promotion, financing and development of the MSMEs, donated Rs 5 crore to the UP Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund. 
 

Earlier, SIDBI had contributed Rs 15 crore to the PM CARES Fund as well.

“We are also managing the Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) on behalf of the Government of India. The state specific funds have shown interest to align with FFS for the objective of supporting start-ups through Fund of Funds operations as well as direct investment in the state specific startups,” SIDBI CMD Mohammad Mustafa said.