Srei, Russian development bank deal on $200 mn innovation fund

Russia's state-run Vnesheconombank (VEB) and Kolkata-based Srei Infrastructure Finance have agreed on the operational terms for setting up an IT and innovation fund with a corpus of $200 million, the Russian development bank announced on Tuesday.

The parties have already started to identify projects for the fund's pipeline, which will include projects of Russian innovative companies, a VEB release said here.

"VEB-Innovations and Indian company SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd signed an agreement on the terms and conditions to establish a Russian-Indian IT and Innovation Fund with the target size of investors' commitment amounting to $200 million," it said.

VEB said that as a next step, both parties will work to create the management structure for the fund, which is slated to be operational before the end of the second quarter of 2018.

"Particular emphasis will be placed on promising inventions based on a strong scientific and technological base of Russia and India," it said.

"The Fund will also help build up trade in Russian and Indian cutting-edge technologies and their transfer to other countries," it added.

"We expect the Russian-Indian Fund to help boost trade and economic cooperation between our two countries. For many IT companies, the Russian market is not enough for distributing their products. Cooperation with SREI will help them enter the market of India and the Asia-Pacific region," Vnesheconombank Chairman Sergey Gorkov said in the statement.

"In June, we signed a memorandum of understanding. And next year the Fund will be ready to make the first investment," said SREI Chairman Hemant Kanoria.

Apart from the Fund, VEB and SREI are actively promoting Russian high technology exports in the Indian market, the statement said.

--IANS

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