The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has effectively removed foreign direct investments (FDI) restrictions for Alternative Investment Funds (AIF). Thereby downstream investments by AIFs in restricted sectors such as ecommerce can bypass FDI laws. In a notification, the RBI said that any AIFs which are sponsored or managed by an Indian resident can now be considered a domestic investment vehicle, regardless of what percentage of the AIF's money comes from overseas funds. (hat tip: Mahesh Murthy). Venture capital firms are considered as AIFs and are regulated by the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI). So far, venture capital firms could not invest directly in ecommerce companies as they would violate the FDI regulations. However, VCs can invest in back-end warehousing firms which are usually listed as a seller on the market place. An example of this would be WS Retail which is a funded warehousing firm rather than Flipkart which is unfunded and incorporated in Singapore. From the notification: The extent of foreign investment in the corpus of the Investment Vehicle will not be a factor to determine as to whether downstream investment of the Investment Vehicle concerned is foreign investment or not. With the new RBI notification treating AIFs with Indian managers as as a domestic entity, it effectively means that all investments made will be treated as domestic investments. Mahesh Murthy, CEO of Pinstorm, illustrates this: Let's say I'm Walmart. Till now I couldn't invest in an Indian retail company. FDI restrictions, you see. But here's what I decide…
