Venture Catalysts launches a ₹300 crore ‘idea stage’ fund to net next unicorns

• Venture Catalysts has launched a new fund called 9Unicorns of ₹300 crores.
• The fund will invest in 100 startups every year with a focus on startups in the segments of Electric Vehicles, mobility, Augmented Reality VR, AI and ML, fintech, retail & FMCG.
• It will invest ₹60 lakh for 5% equity in the initial stage.

Mumbai-based incubator and fund Venture Catalysts announced a new fund called 9Unicorns with an outlay of ₹300 crores. The 9Unicorns fund claims to be the first ‘accelerator VC’ in India, and aims to invest in 100 startups every year.

The fund will focus on early stage startups from segments such as electric vehicles, mobility, augmented reality VR, AI and machine learning, fintech, retail and FMCG.

The fund hopes to identify the next set of unicorns and help them grow. India is home to over 600 accelerators. Yet, it is much lower than that of China and the US, which have over 32,000 and 20,000 accelerators respectively.

The fund will mentor startups and help them grow faster, as a part of a 13-week programme. If a startup shows promise, it will invest ₹60 lakh for 5% equity and could follow up with a round of ₹3-5 crore going ahead.

“9Unicorns Fund will revive idea stage funding in India,” said Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-Founder and Managing Director, 9Unicorns.

“The startups from the fund will benefit from ready access to business angels, Venture Catalyst’s corporate community of over 4,500 members. They will also be able to access markets across 26 cities across the world as well as tier-II, III and IV cities in India to build a large customer base quickly,” he added.