AIF’s are funds that pool capital from institutional investors and wealthy individuals to invest in riskier assets. All AIF’s in India come under the Security and Exchange Board of India’s purview.

The aim is to provide more domestic funding options for the startup community and reduce their dependence on foreign private equity players.

It is worth noting that compared to 2019, both the funding amount and deals in 2020 remained relatively low, indicating the adverse impact of the pandemic on startup investments in 2020. But the recommendations for AIF come amid a persistent anti-China “movement” in India. The Indian government has banned hundreds of Chinese mobile applications and told e-commerce platforms to list ‘country of origin’ for all products listed on their website.

The government is also looking to bring in several special changes to the existing law. Global pension funds and insurance companies will also be one of the investors in the government’s efforts. Recently the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has also called for an expansion of the SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) Fund-of-Funds vehicle as these will be enabled to function as an anchor investor.

In April this year India had already changed its Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules which mandated that all investment from neighbouring countries in Indian companies would require the approval of the Indian government.

It is predicted that due to the pandemic, the total annual funding in the calendar year 2020 will remain relatively lower compared to the previous year. The annual funding amount is estimated to remain anywhere between 11% to 36%.

Founded in 2014 by Apurv Agarwal, Kanika Jain and Vikas Gulati,the startup helps consumer businesses that sell high-ticket products and services across sectors such as real estate, financial services, education, healthcare, and retail improve their sales conversions and funnel efficiency.

Apurv Agrawal, CEO of SquadStack said, “We’re grateful to everyone who believed in our mission to create the ultimate sales acceleration and funnel efficiency stack for consumer focused businesses around the world. To our customer partners, we promise that our vision to make your lives easier by providing the best quality products will never change.”

“We’ve worked across industries because lead qualification and conversion is a challenge for every company irrespective of their industry or niche” said Saswata Shankar De, GM of the SquadIQ business.

According to the company the funds will be used for product growth and scaling its engineering and data science team in the US and India. While the company services both India and the US markets, its product offerings are tailored for market requirements.

In 2017, the firm had raised $2.1 million in pre-series A funding led by Blume Ventures. In 2019, it launched a similar offering as Series A.The offering was made in the massive US Real Estate market. During the initial months of covid-19, they were asked for a software to maximize profitability by the executives at multiple leading US broker teams.The executives also asked them to also provide team performance during the original market downturn. This led to the creation of their offering ‘Auctm’, a business management platform that helps broker teams boost revenue, cut costs, and improve agent training and retention by applying its core principles of data-driven sales acceleration.

The Skyislimit team developed Fokuz app within a short span of five months in response to the current situations.

It’s worth noting that amid the economic crisis unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic Focuz has been able to secure foreign investment from the US based company.

According to a statement issued by Skyislimit, an angel investment worth $2 million (`14.69 crore) will be infused by a US-based healthcare and manufacturing company.

Manodh Mohan, the founder and CEO of Skyislimit Technologies Pvt Ltd  said, “As a Kerala startup company, I think it is a great achievement that we could secure foreign investment in the current scenario. I am a little proud of it.”

He further added, “Malayali entrepreneurs are far ahead in developing innovative concepts and solutions. However, they face challenges when they are about to secure the next stage of investment. This disappoints most entrepreneurs. In such a backdrop, this investment is a fillip to Fokuz. We have plans to utilise the money to strengthen areas such as research and development (R&D), support and business development. Through this, we will also create more job opportunities in the state.”

Being an Indian-origin video-conferencing app, Fokuz assures more privacy and secure experience for its users. It realises the importance of video conference services in the current times. Fokuz app is available on Android and iOS devices, and Windows and macOS computers as well.

Depending on the type of business you are about to start, different small business startups face unique financial demands. Here are some of the likeable expenses to be incurred during the course of starting your business.

· Accounting Costs
· Licenses and Permits
· Legal Fees
· Payroll
· Marketing
· Insurance
· Inventory
· Online Promotion
· Equipment
· Office, Shop, or Showroom

Keeping track of your expenses and accounting for them enables you to accurately project potential profits and to identify your business break-even point. Below are some of the ways you may source for the funds needed to get your business up and running.

Personal Savings – Also known Self- Funding or Bootstrapping, usually refers to a self-starting process that is supposed to proceed without external input. Personal resources are sometimes used to stake independent business ventures. If you’re sitting on a sizable sum, looking for an active investment opportunity, starting a business with your savings may be the easiest way to get off the ground.

Crowdfunding – The rise of crowdfunding platforms has changed the way people think about small business funding. The crowdfunding strategy generally trades access to products and services for partners willing to kick-in on business ventures. It involves getting contributions, loans, or investments from more than one person at the same time. Crowdfunding is a competitive place to earn funding, so your business has to be rock solid to gain the attention of the average investors.

Friends and Family Financing – Friends or family member financing may sound like a perfect small business funding solution, but the arrangements don’t always work out for independent entrepreneurs. This is because despite all parties’ best efforts to spell out loan and repayment terms, confusion can arise, leaving someone feeling slighted. And though most of the agreements are for hands-off funding, well-meaning friends and family lenders may try to have a say in your operation.