Venture Catalysts raises Rs 150 Cr to scale multi‑stage VC platform

Multi-stage venture investing platform Venture Catalysts has raised Rs 150 crore (around $18 million) by selling an equal mix of primary and secondary shares.

The proceeds will be utilized to expand leadership teams, launch new funds and roll out AI-enabled tools for due diligence and limited partner reporting, Venture Catalysts said in a press release.

The primary transaction valued the company at about $200 million post-money. Secondary transactions were priced independently between existing shareholders and incoming investors.

Launched in 2016, Venture Catalysts operates deal-by-deal syndication through angel alternative investment funds (AIFs) as well as a venture capital arm that creates Category II AIFs with fund managers and institutional anchors.

The valuation figure applies only to the primary investment in Venture Catalysts, not to the funds it manages.

The round witnessed participation from public market investors, corporates and family offices. New backers include Ashish Kacholia and group, Authum Investments, the Shah Rukh Khan family office, Aishwarya Rai, Hardik Patel of financial services firm Finquest, Mukul Agarwal, Vinod Dugar, Utpal Seth, and business conglomerate LNB Group.

Existing investors such as Radhakishan Damani, Kamal Agarwal, Enam Securities, Capri Global, and founder-investors Aman Gupta (Boat), Ritesh Agarwal, Nirmit Parikh, and Srinath Ramakkrushnan.

Venture Catalysts manages more than $500 million across funds, with about $200 million deployed via syndication over nine years from ultrahigh net-worth individuals (UHNIs), HNIs and family offices.

VC’s current AIF portfolio includes 100 Unicorns, Beams Fintech Fund, Elev8 Venture Partners and Spyre PropTech Venture Fund. The platform has backed over 400 companies to date, including Renee Cosmetics, InsuranceDekho, BharatPe, Wiom, Zypp Electric and Kissan Konnect.