India, Nov. 17 -- SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd (SVCL), the investment arm of SIDBI, has announced the first close of Antariksh Venture Capital Fund (AVCF) at INR 1,005 Cr. The fund is anchored by INR 1,000 Cr investment from IN-SPACe, India's space promotion body.

The firm is targeting a total corpus of INR 1,600 Cr for the fund from domestic and international investors, including institutional and sovereign funds.

Registered as a Category II AIF with a ten year tenure, the fund will invest across early and growth stage Indian spacetech startups. These spacetech startups offerings would span launch systems, satellites and payloads, in-space services, ground services, earth observation, communications and downstream applications.

"Over the...