In a significant move towards fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, the Bihar Start-up Fund Trust (BSFT), in collaboration with the Department of Industries, Government of Bihar, has joined hands with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). The partnership plans to manage a fund called the Bihar Startup Scale-up Financing Fund (BSSFF), which has ₹50 Crores, to help startups grow in Bihar.
The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was formalized in Patna, where representatives from both sides, including Shri Pankaj Dixit, IAS, Director Industries of the Government of Bihar, and Shri Arijit Dutt, General Manager from SIDBI, signed the agreement. The initiative highlights the goal of making Bihar a great place for startups to grow, which will help the economy and solve important problems in India through new ideas and innovation.
BSFT, established as a nodal agency under the Bihar Start-Up Policy, is dedicated to nurturing a conducive ecosystem for startups to flourish. With an initial corpus of ₹500 Crores, BSFT aims to provide essential support to budding entrepreneurs. Out of this corpus, the BSSFF has been set up with an initial allocation of ₹50 Crores to facilitate scale-up funding for startups.
Under the innovative model, SIDBI will manage the fund in the form of a Fund of Funds, which will not directly invest in startups but will contribute to the corpus of SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds.
Apart from managing the Bihar Startup Scale-up Financing Fund, SIDBI also oversees similar initiatives in collaboration with the Government of India and various state governments. These include the ASPIRE Fund of Funds for agro and rural enterprises, as well as state-specific funds for Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and now Bihar.
The teamwork of BSFT and SIDBI shows a strong effort to help Bihar’s entrepreneurs succeed and boost the economy in a sustainable way through new ideas.
