new delhi jul 28 markets regulator sebi has allowed as many as 235 entities to set aifs pooledin investment vehicles for real estate private equity and hedge funds over a period of nearly four years these alternative investment funds aifs have been registered with sebi since august 12 as on june 30 as many as 235 aifs are registered with securities and exchange board of india sebi the latest data showed of these 45 aifs got capital markets watchdogs nod in the first six months of 2016 while 67 such entities received sebis approval in the entire 2015 among the newly registered aifs are global ventures fund jsw ventures victory investment fund pi ventures investment trust pravega ventures trust and lok capital growth fund aifs are funds established or incorporated in india for the purpose of pooling in capital from indian and foreign investors for investing as per a predecided policy under sebi guidelines aifs can operate broadly in three categories the securities and exchange board of india sebi rules apply to all aifs including those operating as private equity funds real estate funds and hedge funds among others the regulator had notified in may 2012 the guidelines or this class of market intermediaries the categoryi aifs are those funds that get incentives from the government sebi or other regulators and include social venture funds infrastructure funds venture capital funds and sme funds the categoryiii aifs are those trading with a view to making shortterm returns and includes hedge funds among others the categoryii aifs can invest anywhere in any combination but are prohibited from raising debt except for meeting their daytoday operational requirements these aifs include private equity funds debt funds or fund of funds as also all others falling outside the ambit of above two other categories sp abk