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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.

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