The Self Reliant India (SRI) Fund scheme, which supports MSMEs with equity infusion, has invested around Rs 10,979 crore in 577 MSMEs as of March 2025 since its launch. Announced in 2020, the scheme was set up to infuse Rs 50,000 crore as equity funding in MSMEs with the potential and viability to grow and become large units. The scheme has a provision of Rs 10,000 crore from the government and Rs 40,000 crore through private equity and venture capital funds.
The year-on-year investment under the scheme in MSMEs has jumped from Rs 3,306 crore in 107 enterprises in FY24, Rs 3,007 crore in 250 enterprises in FY23, and Rs 1,335 crore in 75 units in FY22, according to the data from the MSME Ministry.
Among states, Karnataka led the tally with the highest count of 151 investee companies followed by 144 companies in Maharashtra, 69 in Delhi, 49 in Haryana, 39 in Telangana, and more.
Registered as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), SRI Fund commits to other SEBI registered AIF Categories I & II and operates on a mother-fund and daughter-fund structure for equity or quasi-equity investment in MSMEs. The fund has empanelled 60 daughter funds.
Meanwhile, to boost credit for MSMEs, the government in this year’s budget had doubled the turnover classification and enhanced the investment limit to 2.5 times. The revised definition had effectively brought enterprises with turnover up to Rs 500 crore from earlier Rs 250 crore into the MSME ambit and made them eligible for various schemes including credit guarantee programme under the MSME Ministry.
This assumes significance as the MSME sector in India continues to grapple with massive credit gap of Rs 30 lakh crore. According to a recent report by SIDBI, the principal financial institution for MSMEs, timely and adequate credit access is one of the key challenges for the MSME sector for which policy interventions may be needed to be sector-specific.
