IFC to invest $ 5 mln in VentureEast Proactive Fund

New Delhi, Nov 1 (UNI) World Bank Group member IFC today said it will invest up to 15 million dollars in the 150 million dollar Hyderabad based VentureEast Proactive Fund in India.

The VentureEast Fund will invest in selected growth-stage companies of small and medium enterprises that require funding of 5-10 million dollars.

''We believe that this fund will address a relatively undeserved segment of the Indian market. To cite an example, only seven per cent of the funds raised in India in 2006 were targeted toward early-stage financing,'' said VentureEast Managing Partner Sarath Naru.

IFC will play a key role through active participation in the fund's governance structure and will also support the development of local private equity by helping it grow and expand according to international norms and practices.

"It is heartening for IFC to be able to support a venture capital fund manager that thinks differently. We have great confidence in this management team, who champion businesses nad technologies that are truly relevant to India," said Regional Director, IFC South Asia Paolo M Martelli.

VentureEast is a Hyderabad and Chennai based fund manager, earlier called APIDC (Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation Limited) Venture capital which started as a public-private partnership in 1995 but is essentially private now. An important approach of the fund will be to back businesses that help address the digital divide, helping technology reach more people at "the bottom of the pyramid".

UNI