Nasscom promoted Innovation Fund gets first closing corpus

Nasscom today said that the India Innovation Fund (IIF) promoted by it and ICICI Knowledge park (IKP) has achieved its first closing corpus of Rs 40 crore.

IIF is structured as a Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)-registered fund with the fund corpus being created through institutional contributions from companies representing the targeted investment areas of the fund.

IIF is being managed by the IKP Investment Management Company (IKPIMC).

The first closing corpus of Rs 40 crore will be scaled up to Rs 100 crore, a release issued here said.

TCS, IKP Trust, Department of Science and Technology (GoI) and Bharti Airtel are anchor investors in the fund.

A unique feature of the IIF model is the collaboration of large, diverse institutions as anchor investors who not only provide the capital but more importantly provide the investing companies with market access and technology development guidance.

It is also the first public-private partnership of this scale providing funding to entrepreneurs, the release added.

IIF is an early-stage fund and has been created to promote Intellectual Property (IP)-driven innovations in frontier or emerging technologies through patient investments.

The fund is targeted at early-stage companies in the ICT and life-sciences sectors, the release added.

IKPIMC has appointed former Nasscom President Kiran Karnik as the Chairman of its board. The board also comprises Dr Bala Manian, a renowned serial entrepreneur with several successful start-ups in the US to his credit and IKP's Managing Director & CEO, Deepanwita Chattopadhyay.

The investments of the fund will be overseen by an investment committee constituted with eminent industry experts, it said.

As of now, IIF has identified the following sectors as key focus areas for investment — Automotive Infotronics & Intelligent Transport Systems, Telecommunication Technologies, Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices and Information Technologies with multi-sector application.

These sectors have been identified based on the need for disruptive technology innovations, to meet the increasingly sophisticated domestic demand in these areas and the potential for India based innovations to acquire a global footprint, the release added.