AgriSURE — Agri Fund for Start-Ups & Rural Enterprises

AgriSURE — the Agri Fund for Start-Ups & Rural Enterprises — was launched on 3 September 2024 by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in New Delhi, alongside a "Greenathon" innovation challenge that had already drawn around 2,000 start-up applications and screened over 500 prototypes since its own launch on 12 July 2024. It is a blended-capital, SEBI-registered Category-II Alternative Investment Fund with a total corpus of ₹750 crore — ₹250 crore from the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, ₹250 crore from NABARD, and a further ₹250 crore to be mobilised from banks, insurance companies and other private investors. Unlike a subsidy or an interest-subvention scheme, AgriSURE puts government and NABARD money directly into the ownership of a start-up, or into other funds that do the same, betting on innovation rather than reimbursing an input cost.

The Fund runs for 10 years from inception, extendable by two more years, and is designed to support around 85 start-ups across its life. NABVENTURES Limited — a wholly owned subsidiary of NABARD — is its Investment Manager, running two separate schemes under one umbrella. The AgriSURE Direct Scheme, with a ₹300 crore corpus, invests equity of up to ₹25 crore straight into an early-stage start-up — one that has already moved past the ideation and prototype stage and built a steady revenue stream around a differentiated business model. The AgriSURE FoF (Fund of Funds) Scheme, with a ₹450 crore corpus, instead backs other SEBI-registered sector-specific, sector-agnostic or debt Alternative Investment Funds — up to 5% of that fund's own corpus or ₹25 crore, whichever is lower — so a start-up can also reach AgriSURE money indirectly, through an AIF it has already raised from.

To actually qualify for the Direct Scheme, a start-up must be recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and incorporated in India, and work in one of AgriSURE's preferred sectors — agritech, food processing, animal husbandry, fisheries, supply chain management, farm mechanisation, biotechnology, waste management, renewable energy, the agri value chain (including Primary Cooperative Societies and FPO support), farm-level technology, or climate change. There is no application portal or fixed form: a start-up or an AIF simply writes to the Investment Manager at [email protected] with its proposal, which is then assessed under SEBI's AIF Regulations and the Fund's Private Placement Memorandum — meeting the qualification criteria on paper does not by itself guarantee an investment. NABVENTURES has also publicly warned that no fee is ever charged to be considered for AgriSURE money; anyone asking for one is not acting on the Fund's behalf.