SBICAP Ventures, a subsidiary of India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), has made the final close of SWAMIH Investment Fund I at Rs 15,530 crore ($1.89 billion), its MD & CEO Suresh Kozhikote told DealStreetAsia in an interview.
Sponsored by the Ministry of Finance, SWAMIH Investment Fund I is India’s largest social impact fund that is slated to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stressed, brownfield, and RERA-registered residential projects that fall in the affordable, mid-income housing category.
RERA stands for the Real Estate Regulatory Authority in India that ensures transparency in the real estate industry.
While SBI is also one of the anchor investors of the fund, it also has investments from the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and HDFC, besides major nationalised banks.
SWAMIH Investment Fund had made the first close at Rs 10,037.5 crore three years ago in 2019, where the Government of India had committed a fund infusion of up to Rs 5,000 crore.
As of date, the fund is appraising 286 projects across over 30 in India which would help complete over 1 lakh homes. The additional commitment will enable the fund to continue to evaluate deals till December 2024.
Since its launch, the fund has scaled up its investment team to 33 professionals and evaluated more than 1000 deals across India.
SBICAP Ventures currently manages three alternate investment funds (AIF), including Neev Fund I, Neev Fund II, and SWAMIH Investment Fund I along with two funds-of-funds, namely, Self Reliant India Fund and UK India Development Cooperation Fund.