The chief executive officer (CEO) of the Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla, has sought regulatory approval to establish his Poonawalla Vision Fund to invest in growth-stage start-ups from his corpus of Rs 1,000 crore, Mint reported. 

A person aware of the development told Mint that Poonawala sent an application to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to register the fund under the Category-II alternative investment fund (AIF). Initially, he will be the sole investor and later the fund will seek investment from other external investors.

Earlier, Adar Poonawalla and the Poonawalla family office invested in multiple companies including Wellness Forever, Mylab, U GRO Capital, Swasti Microfinance and Wakau Interactive. 

“As an HNI, they do not get to invest in IPO-bound companies and have other limitations while investing in unlisted companies hence they will launch a Cat-II fund," the person added. 

The fund is expected to be sector-agnostic and demonstrates interest in start-ups working in the domains like green energy, retail, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and wellness. 

The Indian start-up ecosystem is currently witnessing a fund crunch. Companies have been struggling to generate capital at a proper valuation. A PTI report pointed out that venture capital (VC) funding has dropped by 42 per cent this November compared to the previous year. 

Coupled with the global economic downturn and a 'so-called' funding winter, tech companies were seen to lay off employees to keep the business on profitability track. For instance, Byju's announced its plans to rationalise 5 per cent of its 50,000-strong workforce. Other tech players including Vedantu and Unacademy also terminated staff. 

It is now to be seen whether the Poonawalla-led fund can bring changes in the latest scenario.