Skip to main content

CanBank Venture Capital Fund to manage Government of India's Electronics Development Fund

From the Press Release:

As part of  Digital India Agenda, Government of India it  is envisaged to develop the Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) and IT Sector to achieve net zero imports by 2020. As part of this initiative, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of  Communication and Information  Technology, Government of India has appointed CanBank Venture Capital Fund Limited (CVCFL)  as Fund Manager to house and manage  the Electronics Development Fund (EDF).

EDF as a “Fund-of-Fund” shall participate in “Daughter Funds” which in turn will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of Electronics, Nano Electronics & Information Technology. The corpus of the EDF could be up to Rs.2,200 crore  to be committed  in select Daughter Funds by March 31, 2017.  CVCFL organized a pre- launch event -Symposium on Electronics Development Fund in Mumbai (on November 5, 2015) for announcing the EDF to Angel/VC/PE Funds and Electronics  and IT Industry.

Mr. J.S.Deepak, IAS, Secretary, DeitY during his Inaugural Address at the Symposium on Electronics Development Fund, highlighted the initiatives of Government of India in promoting manufacturing in the Electronics Sector.  He said that  demand for electronics is estimated to be USD400 billion by 2020.  The Government is focused on reducing reliance on imports in this sector by promoting indigenous manufacturing.  EDF is one such step in this direction. The  EDF model will enable capital from the government to be channelized  to needy start ups and manufacturing units  by professional fund managers in an autonomous manner.

As  Keynote Speaker, Dr. Ajay Kumar, IAS, Additional Secretary, DeitY, informed the much awaited Policy on Electronic Development  finally has taken shape.  In this regard, the GOI  is pleased to partner with CVCFL for implementing EDF.  “The ultimate goal of EDF is to reduce the country’s ballooning import bill on account of increasing  demand for electronic devices and technology. The capital from EDF can be deployed across the entire value chain and ecosystem of ESDM including companies focused on Fabless Semiconductors, R&D, and materials technologies for electronic devices “, he said. He emphasized that in tune with the call given by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Design in India will be given an impetus through EDF.


(Left to Right): Mr. Harideesh Kumar B, Executive Director, Canara Bank; Mr. Rakesh Sharma, MD & CEO, Canara Bank; Mr. J.S. Deepak (IAS), Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY); Dr. Ajay Kumar (IAS), Additional Secretary, DeitY; and Mr.S.Thiruvadi, Managing Director, Canbank Venture Capital Fund Limited 

Mr. Rakesh Sharma, MD& CEO of Canara Bank presided over the programme.  He said, “Canara Bank will be a partner in the initiative of DeitY in promoting ESDM Sector through its subsidiary Canbank Venture Capital Fund who are fund managers of EDF. The Bank will also  lend  support to the Electronics and ESDM sector  through debt in this initiative”.

Mr. S.Thiruvadi, Managing Director, CVCFL said EDF,   would especially seek to encourage investments in ventures in the ESDM and related sectors that normal commercial investors would shy away from, owing to higher risks involved. Spelling out the process of how the daughter funds would be evaluated, he added that EDF would be open to invest in funds floated by both Indian and foreign fund managers, as long as the daughter fund’s corpus is dedicated to investments in India.
Mr. Harideesh Kumar B, Executive Director of Canara Bank participated in the programme and laid out the initiatives of CVCFL in venture capital segment so far.

The symposium also witnessed thought provoking and interactive panel discussions involving leading academician Prof. Navakantha Bhat, IISc, Venture Capital investors (including Dr. Hemant Kanakia from  Walden International, Mr. Ajay Lakhotia from Imprint Ventures and Mr.Chinnu Senthilkumar from Exfinity Ventures), entrepreneurs and senior executives from the ESDM sector (including Hariom Rai, Founder, Lava International; Narendra Narayanan, MD, Vinyas Innovation  Technologies; Ramesh Hebbar, DGM, Larsen & Toubro; Mr. A. Gururaj, MD, Vittal Innovation City and Mr. Raja Manickam, Co-founder, Tessolve) and advisory firms (including Mr.Sridhar Venkiteswaran, ED, Avalon Consulting and Mr.S.Bhanuchandran, Founder, Strategic Business Consultant).

Venture Intelligence, the leading provider of data and analytics on Private Equity, Venture Capital and M&A transaction activity in India, was the event partner.

Popular posts from this blog

PE-VC investments in Q2'23 decline 33% to $9.9 Billion

Private Equity-Venture Capital (PE-VC) investments in India during the quarter ended June 2023 (Q2'23), at $9.85 Billion across 182 deals, registered a 33% decrease compared to the same period in 2022 (which saw $14.6 Billion being invested across 371 deals). The investment amount however rose 74% compared to the immediate previous quarter (which saw $5.7 Billion being invested across 181 deals), shows data from  Venture Intelligence , a research service focused on private company financials, transactions, and their valuations. The PE-VC investment figures for the first 6 months of 2023 - at $15.5 Billion (across 363 deals) - was 50% lower compared to the same period in 2022 (which saw $31 Billion being invested across 800 deals). Q2’23 witnessed 19 mega deals ($100 M+

PE-VC investments fall 29% in 2022 to $46 Billion

Press Release: Private Equity - Venture Capital (PE-VC) firms investments in India fell by 29% in 2022 compared to the record highs of 2021. PE-VC firms invested $46 Billion (across 1,261 deals) in Indian companies in 2022, compared to $65 Billion (across 1,362 deals) in the previous year, reports  Venture Intelligence , a research service focused on private company financials, transactions, and their valuations. (Note: These figures include Venture Capital type investments, but exclude PE investments in Real Estate). India minted a total of 21 " Unicorn"  companies (VC-funded startups valued at $1 Billion or more) in 2022, 18 of them during the first six months of 2022 and less than half the 44 Unicorns minted in 2021. In fact, the final quarter of 2022 did not see any new unicorns being created. SaaS companies accounted for 29% of all the new unicorns in 2022,

Blackstone, Temasek, Motilal Oswal and Stakeboat Capital win APEX'23 Private Equity Awards

Blackstone, Temasek, Motilall Oswal and Stakeboat Capital were awarded as among the leading Private Equity investors in India for 2022 as part of Venture Intelligence APEX‘23 Private Equity & Venture Capital awards event in Mumbai.  The Venture Intelligence “Awards for Private Equity Excellence” (APEX) is dedicated to celebrating the best that the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital industry has to offer.  The APEX Awardees are selected based on both Self Nomination by the participating PE-VC firms as well as "crowd sourced" nominations and voting from the Limited Partner, PE-VC and advisory communities. (The main criteria are Exit Track Record, New Fund Raises & Follow-on Funding Rounds for Portfolio Companies) Temasek received the Private Equity Fund of the Year  2022 Award on the back of strong part exits during from  year from Intas Pharma (with an over 7.5x return); Devyani International (with ~4.8x) and Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals (with ~3.5x).

Avendus tops League Table for Transaction Advisors to PE deals in Q1'23

Aeka Advisors and Ambit claim the No.2 & 3 slot Avendus topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Transaction Advisor to Private Equity Transactions for Q1 2023 advising 5 deals worth $808 million. Aeka Advisors stood second having advised 3 deals worth $228 million. Ambit followed with 4 deals worth $160 million. Ernst & Young ($114 million across 4 deals) and o3 Capital ($80 million across 2 deals) completed the top five for Q1 2023. Avendus acted as advisor to ADIA’s $500 million investment in omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart . Aeka Advisors acted as advisor to Kreditbee’s $160 million fundraise from Advent International, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and existing investors. Ambit advised the $104 million fundraise of Freshtohome from Mount Judi Ventures, Iron Pillar, Amazon and others. The  Venture Intelligence League Tables , the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on the value of PE

Avendus tops League Table for Transaction Advisors to Private Equity deals in 2022

Ernst & Young and JM Financial claim the No.2 & 3 slots Avendus topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Transaction Advisor to Private Equity Transactions in 2022 advising 34 deals worth $5.4 Billion. Ernst & Young stood second advising 11 deals worth $1.25 Billion. JM Financial followed with 3 deals worth $1.04 Billion. Ambit ($1 Billion across 14 deals) and Morgan Stanley ($810 million across 2 deals) completed the top five for 2022. Avendus  advised deals included Mobile Content and News aggregator Unicorn Dailyhunt’s $805 million fundraise from Sumeru Ventures, Luxor Capital, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Sofina, Baillie Gifford, and CPPIB.  Ernst & Young  advised the $775 million purchase of six toll road projects from Welspun Enterprises by Actis.  Citi  and  JM Financial  advised the $593 million acquisition of IDFC Asset Management Company by a consortium comprising Bandhan Financial Holdings Limited and private equity investors GIC and ChrysCapi