Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has made its foray into the venture debt market to address funding needs of companies. “Along with equity investments, we are talking about the ability to provide debt. A lot of banks, even today, are not in a position within their straitjacket to provide debt to companies. So, SIDBI has gone into what is known as venture debt,” chairman and managing director Sivasubramanian Ramann said at the IVCA conclave in Mumbai. “It is a very small beginning, but I think we’ve done about four investments, and this we are doing with, in fact, the partnership that has grown among all of you. We’ve partnered with a few of the funds that we’ve supported and we’ve been able to get leads from those funds.”