GVFL plans to enhance fund portfolio by Rs 300 crore

Ahmedabad, Jul 17 (UNI) GVFL Ltd, the country's pioneer venture capital company, today announced its plans to enhance its existing fund portfolio by setting up a Rs 300 crore fund by 2010.

Chief Executive Officer of GVFL Ltd Vishnu Varshney told reporters that Rs 250 crore will be put in SME Technology Venture Fund, which would invest in both early and growth stage companies from next year. Besides, the company is contemplating setting up a Tourism Fund in the size of Rs 50 crore in the near future in association with Government of Gujarat.

He said from this SME Fund, GVFL will not only explore new investment opportunities but also provide additional investments to its existing investor companies who have good growth potential. ''We are also planning four more investments in IT and Biotech by end of this year, '' he added.

In the SME technology fund, Varshney said Rs 50 crore will be generated from domestic investors while Rs 200 crore will be generated from overseas.

Mr Varshney said GVFL also plans to increase the corpus of its IT Fund from existing Rs 29 crore to Rs 50 crore.

GVFL has divested out of 52 of the 60 investor companies out ofw hich seven divestments have taken place in the past year. The exits were made through strategic buyouts by promoters or other investors. The company also plans to close its two funds promoted in 1995 and 1997 by March 2009 at a substantial IRR, he said.

GVFL Ltd (formerly Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd) was started by Gujarat Industrial and Investment Corporation at the initiative of the World Bank in July 1990, as an independent, board-managed, autonomous venture finance company based at Ahmedabad.

Over the past 17 years, GVFL Ltd has raised six Venture Capital Funds with a combined capital of Rs 140 crore, which is invested in 60 companies across the country, which have not only been provided with start up capital but also given a nurturing environment. This resulted in 19 outstandingly successful business enterprises nationwide and some of its significant success stories included Deccanet, eInfochips, Icenet, Scicom, Net4Nuts, Parsec Technologies and Neilsoft and several others, he said.

UNI