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The Securities and Exchange Board of India has approved India’s first social venture fund, Incube Connect Fund, which seeks to collect Rs 200 crore for investment in four sectors impacting the life of people.
Registered with the regulator under the SEBI (AIF) Regulations, 2012, the Ahmedabad-based social venture fund has been sponsored by Incube Ventures Pvt Ltd, promoted by Mani Iyer, for primarily incubating, mentoring, providing seed capital and angel investments to nascent business ideas of social ventures, promoting differentiated high social impact technology among others, according to a press release here on Thursday.
Incube Connect, a nine-year, Rs 200-crore sector-agnostic fund will primarily be focused on four sectors: healthcare delivery-product and services, vocational education and skill enhancement, clean energy and eco business and sustainable rural business innovations.
Projects
“Some of the projects that Incube is looking closely at include a geothermal energy project, a project for evolving healthcare delivery ecosystem in one of the most backward districts of the country, a project for fractionation of blood plasma and an innovative financial model for affordable housing for the vulnerable sections of the society,” he said. Incube Ventures was incorporated in 2010 under the Companies Act, 1956.
The current authorised share capital is Rs 1 crore and subscribed and paid-up capital is Rs 97.50 lakh.
Social cause
S. Sridhar, former Chairman and Managing Director of Central Bank of India, is the chairman of Incube Trustees Co Pvt Ltd.
He will be overseeing statutory compliance of Incube and guide the Fund in statutory and governance aspects. The targeted corpus of Incube will primarily be invested in opportunities presented in the space which contributes to social cause significantly apart from generating reasonable returns for the investors.
“The objective of Incube is to back entrepreneurs typically at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of their ability to raise capital, partner them, and take them into ecosystem to nurture and grow them to be investor-ready,” Iyer added.
virendra.pandit@thehindu.co.in
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