Venture Catalysts launches India's first accelerator VC to identify early stage start-ups

Venture Catalysts, India’s first, largest and pioneering integrated incubator and accelerator platform, has launched 9Unicorns Fund, which would be the country's first accelerator VC to identify the best ideas and early stage start-ups. The Fund will identify high potential early stage businesses across sectors, including but not limited to domains such as Electric Vehicles, mobility, Augmented Reality VR, AI and ML, fintech, retail & FMCG startups, said the company statement.

Notably, India is home to 26 unicorns today, but only one of these was a part of the 600 accelerators in the country, and the number of accelerators itself is much lesser in comparison to China (32k+) and US (20k+). The pace at which number of unicorns are growing in India, 8 unicorns were added in 2018 alone compared with 9 in a span of 6 years from 2011-2017, but the absence of dedicated accelerators is a problem, said the company. 

"9Unicorns Fund has been envisaged to fill this gap by emerging as a one-stop mentoring, networking and growth facilitation platform for emerging businesses to grow to their full potential," it said, adding that the 9Unicorns has a dedicated fund allocation of Rs 300 crore offered by Venture Catalysts. 

Out of the funds, the accelerator VC plans to invest in 100+ companies every year, promising a standard deal of Rs 60 lakhs for 5% equity along with a further scope to invest Rs 3-5 crore more during subsequent funding rounds for start-ups that show sustained promise over a period of time, it said. 

"Considering a significant number of start-ups die within the first few years because they are unable to raise the right funding rounds at the right time, 9Unicorns Fund has put in place a unique de-risking strategy," it said, adding "The start-ups will have VCats as a facilitator, with an access to the firm’s extensive network for its seed funding" to  ensure a runway of up to 18 months for the start-up, post which it will be able to secure larger funds for Series A+ rounds from growth stage investors. 
This protective cushioning at an early stage makes the Fund an extremely attractive proposition for businesses, and its strategy to lower the risk of sustenance for start-ups considerably distinguishes its value proposition, the statement added.

“9Unicorns Fund will revive idea stage funding in India” said Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-Founder and Managing Director, 9Unicorns, adding “Like in sports, timing is of great value in the business environment. Could Sachin Tendulkar have become the legend he is today if his family and coach had failed to identify his early promise? With 9Unicorns Fund, we aim to do something similar. Identify budding businesses with terrific possibilities and ensure them every kind of assistance to ensure their success.”

Dr Apoorv further added, “9Unicorn Fund start-ups will benefit from ready access to business angels & VCats’ corporate community of 4500+ members, which is becoming stronger as we add more portfolio companies. 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.”

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Initiatives such as 9Unicorn Fund are needed to augment the growth of Indian start-up ecosystem, acting as the perfect backdrop for new ideas to flourish and reach a certain maturity level, it added.