Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has successfully raised Rs. 540 crores via a venture capital fund to provide loans to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), said a senior official of SIDBI in New Delhi recently.

SIDBI through SIDBI Venture Capital (SIDBI VC) Ltd. had earlier targeted a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore venture capital (VC) fund to be launched soon.

"The fund of Rs 540 crore has been raised till now out of total amount of Rs 1000 crores and will be launched very soon by way of equity capital or equity linked instruments," a SIDBI official told SME Times.

"Basically, it is the third venture capital fund which has been set up by SIDBI venture capital limited," the official added.

"The third fund is called Indian opportunity fund, because India is bubbling up with lots of opportunities. This is the initiative of commercial banks, SIDBI and the other institutions etc," the official also said.

SIDBI was set up with an aim to promote, finance and develop industries in the small scale sector.

The asset size of the bank was more than Rs.41,000 crore in the fiscal 2009-10; it is expected to cross Rs. 50,000 crore mark in fiscal 2010-11.