AP Investment Fund to focus on startups

Three entrepreneurs, two of them of Andhra origin from the US, on Tuesday announced the establishment of an investment company "� Andhra Pradesh Investment Fund "� with a corpus of $7 million (around Rs 28 crore).

With focus on startups in the state, the company would look at investing in companies in sectors like IT, biotechnology and similar knowledge-based services with a three-year exit option, according to Venkatesh Tadinada, one of the promoters of the fund.

The fund would be created in two phases "� $2 million (Rs 8 crore) this year and the rest next year. Phase-I is expected to be closed by August this year, he said.

Announcing this here today, Venkatesh said that the new company was already reviewing the investment prospects with regard to four entities in the state.

The investment fund is proposed to be raised through an investment club where investors are offered to contribute amounts ranging from $25,000 (Rs 10 lakh) to $1 lakh (Rs 40 lakh), which would form part of the corpus.