Venture Catalysts launches Rs 300-cr fund for early stage startups

Started with a dedicated fund allocation of Rs 300 crore, the accelerator VC 9Unicorns Fund plans to invest in 100 start-ups in three years

Bengaluru-based start-up incubator Venture Catalysts on Thursday launched 9Unicorns Fund to invest in early stage start-ups.
The company said the fund is the first accelerator VC in India.

Started with a dedicated fund allocation of Rs 300 crore, the accelerator VC plans to invest in 100 start-ups in three years. The fund will offer a standard deal of Rs 60 lakh for five per cent equity. According to the company, the 9Unicorn Funds will identify high potential early stage business across sectors including electric vehicles, mobility, AR, VR, AI, ML, fintech, retail, and FMCG.

Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, co-founder and President of Venture Catalysts, said the fund will look for India-specific business models to invest in. Selection of a start-up, according to the company, will also depend on how good the core team is and the corporate access that the start-up has.

"The accelerator fund has also put in place a derisking strategy. The plan is to open up Venture Catalysts’ network to startuups for seed funding. This will ensure a runway of up to 18 months for the startup, post which it will be able to secure larger funds for Series A rounds and onwards from growth stage investors," the company said in a statement.

Venture Catalysts is an integrated incubator and invests $250,000 – $1.5 million in early stage startups. It has established dedicated sector-specific accelerator programmes, and has closed 59 deals in the year 2018 alone which cumulatively invested Rs 308 cr for its portfolio companies.