New Ventures plans equity fund of $100,000:
Sohini Das & Jayajit Dash / Kolkata April 15, 2008
New Ventures India(NVI), a joint initiative of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre , World Research Institute (WRI), Washington DC and the United States Agency for International Development(USAID), has roped in five venture capital funds with eight more in the pipeline to fund green technology projects in small and medium enterprises.

Major players like Sequia Capital, Nexus India Capital, Rianta Capital, Acumen Fund, and angel funds like ATE enterprises had already joined the Green Investor Network of NVI. Talks are on with IDG Ventures among others, and eight more will join the network by May this year.

ICICI Bank had already inked a memorandum of understanding with NVI last year and had agreed to contribute Rs 100 crore to the Green Investor Network.

The programme seeks to fund investemnts worth $250 million in green SMEs in India by 2010.

An NVI spokesperson also informed that the alliance had plans to create an equity fund worth $100,000 or more in the future.

As NVI acts as a facilitator to bring investments to SMEs working on clean technology, it could not start a fund itself, and a separate entity altogether could be spun off for the purpose, she added. The plans, however, were at a nascent stage, she informed.

The initiative had already facilitated investment flow worth $12.8 million to five portfolio companies working in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficient devices, recycling of polythene bags into fashionable accessories, eco-tourism among others.

The alliance had started with USAID as the initial equity holder. USAID's equity participation, however, ends in September this year, said S Padmanabhan, deputy director and senior energy advisor, USAID India.

To sustain the initiative NVI will now start charging the investors as well as the participating SMEs.