Venture Catalysts marks the first close of its accelerator fund 9Unicorns at Rs 100 Cr

Mumbai-based integrated incubator, Venture Catalysts has marked the first close of its maiden accelerator fund ‘9Unicorns’ at Rs 100 crore. The Fund-I was launched in August last year. 

Having garnered the first tranche for the Fund-I already, the firm is targeting to raise the rest of the targeted Rs 300 crore corpus from multiple sources including corporations, family offices, and institutions from across the ten countries.

“The post-pandemic world now looks at India and Indian entrepreneurs with different light and at 9Unicorns one hopes to back founders with a zeal to enable, change, empower and build ecosystems,” said Abhijeet Pai, an incoming Partner at the Fund.

Floated by Venture Catalysts’ founding team, 9Unicorns has become one of the active accelerator VCs in India. It provides acceleration support and seed funding of up to $100K per startup to early-stage startups in the first round, and $500K-$2Mn in successive rounds with its co-investors.

The latest raised funds would be deployed towards more than 100 early-stage startups and the Venture Catalysts is intending to write a cheque ranging around $100k for 5-7% equity per start-up. As a part of the plan, the companies would go through 3 months of its acceleration program while being mentored by successful founders. 

Further, it will also be investing  $500k to $2 million in performing startups who have sustained growth after the initial funding. The fund is sector agnostic and geared towards Indian startups.

According to the official website, Venture Catalysts have curated 16,500 startups by leading $158 million in investments in over 168 deals since its inception. Apart from presence in top cities, the firm has offices across Lucknow, Raipur, Surat, Nagpur, Jaipur, Kochi, and several others. It has incubated a slew of startups including Innov8, GoMechanic, Beardo, BharatPe, PeeSafe, Fynd ConfirmTKT, and Ambee. 

Despite the ongoing challenging economic situations, venture capitals of all sizes, especially early-stage focused, are closing new funds, which include AngelList India, BEENEXT, Lightspeed, and Sequoia Capital.