BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to institutionalise the ‘Fund of Funds’ model as State Startup Fund to make it more easy to access.
A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy at Lok Seva Bhawan here.
The meeting decided to commit Rs 100 crore for allocation to the State Startup Fund over a period of three to five years as per requirement.
It was resolved to mobilise effective venture funds from private and corporate sector for constituting ‘Fund of Funds’ for startups in Odisha.
Official sources said comparative benefit and failure of different venture fund models were discussed at the meeting.
Keeping in view the situation in Odisha, it was considered that the ‘Fund of Funds’ model would be more helpful and easy to access for the State-based startups.
The Chief Secretary directed the officials to examine different contours of this model and formulate a detail proposal.
He also advised the departments concerned to augment the startup ecosystem in the State by filling up the critical gaps through convergence so as to attract private venture capitals for Odisha startups.
Industry Secretary Hemant Kumar Sharma said so far, 500 startups have been registered from which 57 per cent incorporated during and after 2017. Among the incorporated units, around 150 are led by women.
Besides, 13 incubator centers are operating in Odisha, including IIT-Bhubaneswar, NIST, NIIT, KIIT, Rabi Sankar University.
Odisha Startup Policy has set the target to launch 1000 startups by end of March, 2021. Sharma said Odisha has been ranked top performer in States Startup Ranking 2018 by Department for Promotion of Industry and International Trade of the Centre.
According to Industry department, launching of startups in Odisha during 2017-18 has increased by 84 per cent over 2015-16 against the national growth of around 62 per cent during the same period.