The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for FFS, the minister said

As many as 254 startups have received investment to the tune of over Rs 1,700 crore from the Sebi-registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) and the central government has also set up a Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with corpus of Rs 10,000 crore, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.

Mr Goyal said in the Lok Sabha that with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore, the FFS will meet the funding needs of startups.

He said the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade is the monitoring agency and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for FFS.

"The total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore is envisaged to be provided over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles based on progress of the scheme and availability of funds. As on July 10, 2019, the SIDBI has committed Rs 3123.20 crore to 47 SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs)," he said.

The minister said these funds have raised a corpus fund of Rs 25,728 crore.

"Further, the AIFs have invested a total of Rs 1,701.03 crore into 254 startups out of which Rs 512.57 crore have been drawn from Fund of Funds for Startups," he said.