Venture Catalysts $200 million fund, 9Unicorns, rebrands itself

New Delhi: Rebranding as 100Unicorns, 9Unicorns, a division of the multi-stage investment platform Venture Catalysts Group, has opened its second accelerator fund, targeting $200 million to invest in 200 national businesses.According to Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, managing director of Venture Catalysts Group and co-founder of 100Unicorns, the company intends to announce its first closure by November with the goal of pooling 30–50% of the total fund size.According to Sharma, 100Unicorns would provide early-stage enterprises with initial investments between $250,000 and $1 million in exchange for a 5–10% share. There may be additional opportunities for investments up to $3 million in subsequent rounds.Increasing the need The establishment of the new fund reflects the increasing need for early-stage capital in India, where investors have continued to support nascent businesses in spite of the financial winter.

Tracxn data indicates that pre-seed, seed, and Series A funding saw significant growth in 2022 and 2023.Sharma emphasized that between 2015 and 2022, financing for the Indian startup sector increased fifteen times. "In the next ten years, I firmly believe that India will become the 'Startup Nation,' producing the greatest number of unicorns, entrepreneurs, and jobs created by startups."Startups with a $1 billion or higher valuation are considered unicorns. Based on information provided by the company, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Tracxn show that, with over 110,000 new enterprises operating nationwide, India currently has the third-largest startup ecosystem globally. There are 111 unicorns in the nation, and their aggregate worth is $350 billion. About 80–85% of the cash for the second fund would be invested in India; the remaining portion will be financed by partners in the US, West Asia, Southeast Asia, and African markets. According to Sharma, there are over 77,000 startups on the African continent, which is still a profitable region.