(This story originally appeared in on Oct 19, 2017)

MUMBAI: Metals billionaire Anil Agarwal , who made a surprise $2-billion investment in blue-chip miner Anglo American Plc earlier this year, now intends to launch a $1-billion venture capital fund to help young Indian entrepreneurs build their businesses from ground up. Agarwal joins industrialists like Mukesh Ambani, N R Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji in the startup financing play.Agarwal, who worked his way up from being a scrap-metal dealer to one of India’s most prominent business tycoons globally, plans to set up this fund to finance new ventures in the natural resources space.In an interview with TOI, the London-based Agarwal, who is in Mumbai for Diwali, said that the platform will assist entrepreneurs whose ventures are connected with his diverse commodity businesses. This is because, as Agarwal puts it, “I only know my (natural resources) sector well”, and so a partnership will help these ventures blossom in and around his Vedanta Group. He will invest anywhere between Rs 5 crore and Rs 200 crore ($30 million) in select entities.Agarwal’s proposed move to back small and medium enterprises is for strategic reasons and not as a mere investment. Once set up, this will be the first natural resources-focused venture fund established by an Indian industrialist.With revenues of over $15 billion, Agarwal’s empire ranges from iron ore, copper, zinc, aluminium, gold, silver and diamond to oil & gas, with its operations spreading from India to South Africa. More than two-thirds of the Vedanta Group’s revenues come from India and the rest flow from outside.In 2017, venture/private equity capital investors put in over $6 billion in Indian startups that focus on technology.Agarwal said the structure under which the fund will be set up is yet to be decided. “We are still debating if the fund will be through the company (Vedanta Ltd) or in an individual capacity,” he said. The Bihar-born mining magnate, who is often invited to top business schools and technology institutes as a guest speaker, has found Indians to be one of the most enterprising when it comes to setting up new businesses, and one of the most intelligent ones globally. Agarwal wants to tap young entrepreneurs from IITs and IIMs, where most top Indian talents study, and fund them.Last year, Mukesh Ambani announced that a Rs 5,000-crore startup fund will be set up through Reliance Jio to invest in digital businesses. Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Group has instituted a Rs 100-crore venture capital to provide financial assistance to early-stage companies.