Indian insurance companies can now invest in FoF

After the unicorn parade we saw this week, there's more reason to cheer for Indian startups, thanks to the IRDA's move to allow Indian insurance companies to invest in Funds of Funds.

Saturday April 10, 2021 , 4 min Read

After the unicorn parade we saw this week, there's more reason to cheer for Indian startups, thanks to the IRDA's move to allow Indian insurance companies to invest in Funds of Funds.

The latest IRDA move will mean greater inflow of domestic capital into the startup ecosystem and comes close on the heels of the recent decision of the government to allow private retirement funds to park certain percentage of their capital in Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs).

Indeed, experts believe the inflection point for any startup ecosystem to be when domestic institutional capital is allowed to start investing into the local ecosystem.

"This move by the IRDA and the move by PFRDA last month shows the government's intent to accelerate institutional rupee funding to startups, which will help in economic growth and job creation," said Siddarth Pai, Founding Partner and CFO at 3one4 Capital, and Co-Chair at Regulatory Affairs Committee.

This announcement to boost domestic capital in India comes after IvyCap Ventures recently made a 22X return of Rs 330 crore after partially exiting beauty startup Purplle, marking a turning point for institutional investors in India.

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News & Updates

True North sold a part of its holding in PolicyBazaar to five independent buyers – Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust Plc, Triumph Global Holdings Pte Limited, Serum Institute of India, IIFL Special Opportunities Fund Series 8, and India Acorn Fund Limited. In October 2020, it had conducted the first tranche of its stake sale in the company.

Domestic micro-venture capital fund Speciale Invest has raised Rs 140 crore in its second fund. With this second fund, Speciale Invest is looking to invest in 18-20 startups in enterprise software, SaaS, and frontier technologies.

Alteria Capital announced the close of its Alteria Capital II fund, which has been heavily oversubscribed and has exceeded the target fund of Rs 1000 crore within four months of its launch. The fund now has an AUM of Rs 2300 crore across two venture debt funds.

Amazon has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's division bench order that had vacated a stay on Kishore Biyani-led Future Group proceeding with its Rs 24,713 crore asset sale to Reliance Industries. Amazon sought a stay on the March 22 order of the division bench, terming it illegal, random, inequitable, and unfair.