Samridhi Fund

Overview

Samridhi Fund is a social venture capital fund established with contributions from the Department for International Development (DFID), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), and United India Insurance Company Limited (UIIC). The fund aims to provide risk capital to scalable enterprises that offer economic, social, or environmental benefits to the poor in eight low-income states of India: Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and West Bengal. It is managed by SIDBI Venture Capital Limited (SVCL), a subsidiary of SIDBI. The fund focuses on sectors such as water and sanitation, affordable healthcare, agriculture and allied activities, clean energy and green technologies, financial inclusion including microfinance institutions (MFIs) and small finance banks (SFBs), education and skill building, livelihood building, information technology and information technology-enabled services (IT & ITES), and infrastructure. Investments typically range from ₹5 crore to ₹25 crore, structured as equity or equity-linked instruments like convertible debentures and preference shares, to suit the requirements of the investee company. Samridhi Fund's portfolio includes companies like Annapurna Finance Pvt. Ltd., Caspian, ESAF Financial Holdings Pvt. Ltd., INI Farms Pvt. Ltd., Janakalyan, NatureLand Organic Foods Pvt. Ltd., Online PSB Loans Pvt. Ltd., Oriano Clean Energy Pvt. Ltd., RGVN, Rite Water Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., Saggraha, and Sonata Finance Pvt. Ltd. The fund has made significant impact, creating over 22,000 jobs, providing access to financial services for 5.9 million individuals, delivering quality and low-cost healthcare to over 1.5 million patients, and installing over 3,500 water treatment plants benefiting more than 1.4 million individuals.