The Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE.CO), IIM Ahmedabad's startup incubator and investor, has floated a new accelerator fund to invest in early-stage deep-tech startups.
CIIE.CO, which has invested in over 300 startups in India since inception, floated the accelerator fund last week with a corpus of Rs 40 crore. It said on Wednesday that it has received capital from government-owned lender Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for the fund.
SIDBI is contributing Rs 20 crore, or half of the total corpus, to the fund. CIIE.CO is bringing the remaining Rs 20 crore, it said in a statement.
The fund intends to invest in pre-seed stage deep-tech startups in the country.
CIIE.CO is a sector-agnostic investor, but focuses on broader themes of deep-tech, digitisation and climate technology. It has backed startups such as space-tech firm Agnikul, artificial intelligence-based platform Entropik, and augmented reality technology startup Playshifu, among others.
SIDBI manages a Rs 10,000 crore fund-of-funds for startups and has backed VC firms such as Blume Ventures, Chiratae Ventures and Omnivore, among others.
Earlier this week, it committed Rs 50 crore to Singapore-based investment firm Lighthouse Canton’s early-stage fund LC Nueva Alternate Investment Fund. Lighthouse floated the fund in collaboration with investment firm Nueva Capital.
Last week, SIDBI anchored a debt fund managed by Vivriti Asset Management, in one of its largest allocations to an alternative investment vehicle.