Both Sidbi and the ₹10,000-crore Self Reliant India (SRI) Fund, owned by NSIC Venture Capital Fund (NVCFL), a 100% subsidiary of NSIC, will invest about ₹300 crore into Sorin, said multiple people aware of the development. The fresh investments will help Sorin close its maiden fund at ₹1,300 crore. SRI Fund, sponsored by NSIC, will employ a ‘Fund-of-Funds’ investment strategy wherein it will invest in Sebi-registered Category I and Category II alternative investment funds (daughter funds), which will, in turn, invest in MSMEs, according to the company’s website.
When contacted, Nayar declined to comment while mails sent to Sidbi and NVCFL did not elicit any response till press time.
Sorin Investments had raised a corpus of over ₹1,000 crore in August. Sorin has deployed about ₹70 crore till date in two startups. It plans to invest an additional about ₹70 crore in two more transactions by 2023, people said.
The fund comprises investments from Henry Kravis, George Roberts, and other associates of US-based KKR & Co, along with Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman of Hero Enterprise, and a few Indian family offices. The fund focuses on early-stage tech startups across areas such as fintech, edtech, software-as-a-service, logistics, clean technologies and direct-to-consumer products and brands. It aims to invest between $2 and $10 million each in target companies. Fund made first investment in Uniqus Consultech, an ESG consulting firm, co-founded by Jamil Khatri, former global head of accounting advisory at KPMG, and Sandip Khetan, former head of financial accounting advisory services at EY India.
