Mumbai, Maharashtra, India:
 Venture Catalysts Group (Vcats++), India’s first built-in incubator and a full-stack investor for early to development stage startups, has introduced that about 54 of its portfolio startups have crossed $50 million valuation this yr. Despite difficult instances that led to a 70% decline in funding this yr, Venture Catalysts grew considerably, housing greater than 33 soonicorns and over 100 minicorns. The particular person valuations of atleast two dozen corporations have crossed $100 million with and about three startups — Shiprocket, BharatPe and Vendantu have attained Unicorn standing in the final one yr.

 

Venture Catalaysts Group or Vcats ++ is an early-to-development stage fund that features 5 funds starting from early stage to sector centered. The firm had first launched its $150 million accelerator fund in 2020 publish which it has launched 4 extra together with – Venture Catalysts Angel Fund, a $200 million fintech centered fund referred to as Beams, proptech fund Spyre, and $200 million development stage sector agnostic fund Elev8. The group has a mixed portfolio of over 300 startups whose consolidated valuation is pegged at round $10 billion thus making it the nation’s largest early to development stage investing platform.

 

“The valuations assumes importance at a time when the fears around a possible funding winter continues to spook investors and startups not only in India but worldwide too. It talks volumes about the growth and up-rounds of the portfolio companies. Most of our portfolios have done extremely well in the last two years and we see atleast 3-4 turning Unicorns next year,” mentioned Dr (*54*) Ranjan Sharma, Cofounder Venture Catalysts Group.

 

The firm, which has three different cofounders — Anil Jain, Anuj Golecha and Gaurav Jain, additionally goals to shut 100 exits and up-rounds by the calendar yr 2022. Venture Catalysts has invested in 301 offers throughout 200 startups since the time of its inception, making it India’s main early-stage investing platform. Venture Catalysts is greater than an funding agency and it believes in the sturdy mentorship program and well timed steering it offers to its portfolio that has helped these elevate up rounds at increased valuations and serving to the startups with significant connects they want in their development stage.

 

Talking about the help Venture Catalysts has offered, Somdutta Singh, Founder and CEO, Assiduus Global, mentioned “Finding a good mentor is the ‘secret sauce’ to a startup’s success, and 9Unicorns, and VCAT have been the guiding force for Assiduus Global. We received support and resources from 9Uniconrn to boost our growth. When properly equipped, we have been able to take Assiduus to establish our presence in our sector across the globe. We were able to take off effortlessly and rapidly in the real world because of the mentorship, financial prospects, potential commercial opportunities, industry networking, and access to a global network for all-around support.”

 

Venture Catalysts has pushed early-stage investments price $100 million (INR 782.4 crore roughly) by means of its community. Across 67 startups, 94 offers had been executed, out of which, 27 offers gave partial or full exits, whereas the remaining witnessed up-rounds. Corresponding to 17 offers, 13 startups have been written off attributable to the failure to get better property, or given lower than 1x return.

 

The built-in incubator has invested in startups with vital worth propositions, investing in pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds, following up with help for its portfolio in subsequent rounds. Some of the largest corporations included in its portfolio are BharatPe, Vedantu, Zingbus, Beardo, SuprDaily, Innov8, Home Capital, BlowHorn, amongst others. Not solely has Venture Catalysts supported the startups proper from the latter’s formative stage and helped these manoeuvre by means of the development stage, it has additionally democratised the startup ecosystem in nation. With over 3000 angel traders current throughout 55 cities, Venture Catalysts has the largest community in the nation the place it has helped create consciousness about the startup investments by means of its properly deliberate masterclasses and tailor-made startup programmes.

 

Reflecting on the development of the enterprise capital trade, Dr Sharma added, “The uprise of startups in India has set a new benchmark for entrepreneurship all across the world. Venture Catalysts have taken preemptive measures to create a diverse, holistic portfolio of companies with a high-growth potential, leveraging capital, mentoring and our network of HNIs, Family Offices, CXOs and more. Our aim is to democratise the entrepreneurial ecosystem, enabling more investors to explore higher return asset classes to achieve profitable returns in a faster turnaround time. As a by-product of these initiatives, we have also contributed to the wealth creation and job creation in the country.”(*7*)