Venture Catalysts, a Mumbai-based multi-stage venture investing platform, has raised Rs 150 crore (around $18 million) by selling an equal mix of primary and secondary shares.
The primary transaction valued the company at about $200 million post-money, cofounder and managing director Apoorva Ranjan Sharma told ET. Secondary transactions were priced independently between existing shareholders and incoming investors.
Founded in 2016 as an angel network, 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 drew in public market veterans, corporates and family offices, including from Bollywood, Sharma said. New backers include Ashish Kacholia and group, Authum Investments, the Shah Rukh Khan family office, Aishwarya Rai, Karthik Sundar Iyer of investment firm Twentyfirst Century Management Services, Hardik Patel of financial services firm Finquest and business conglomerate LNB Group.
Existing investors such as Radhakishan Damani (DMart), Kamal Agarwal (Haldiram), Enam Securities, Capri Global, and founder-investors Aman Gupta (Boat), Ritesh Agarwal (Oyo), Nirmit Parikh (Apna) and Srinath Ramakkrushnan (Zetwerk) also participated.
The company said it will use the fresh capital to expand leadership teams, launch new funds and roll out AI-enabled tools for due diligence and limited partner reporting.
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.
“Our primary focus has been picking up companies very early on. Through fund structures, we have also entered into growth stages, because that's the way it can be done in India,” said Sharma.
Its 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.
“This fresh capital will deepen active deal flow, seed new fund strategies and enhance the technology backbone that supports our ecosystem—particularly AI-driven solutions that enable investors and founders to collaborate at speed and scale,” said Venture Catalysts cofounder Anuj Golecha.
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The primary transaction valued the company at about $200 million post-money, cofounder and managing director Apoorva Ranjan Sharma told ET. Secondary transactions were priced independently between existing shareholders and incoming investors.
Founded in 2016 as an angel network, 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 drew in public market veterans, corporates and family offices, including from Bollywood, Sharma said. New backers include Ashish Kacholia and group, Authum Investments, the Shah Rukh Khan family office, Aishwarya Rai, Karthik Sundar Iyer of investment firm Twentyfirst Century Management Services, Hardik Patel of financial services firm Finquest and business conglomerate LNB Group.
Existing investors such as Radhakishan Damani (DMart), Kamal Agarwal (Haldiram), Enam Securities, Capri Global, and founder-investors Aman Gupta (Boat), Ritesh Agarwal (Oyo), Nirmit Parikh (Apna) and Srinath Ramakkrushnan (Zetwerk) also participated.
The company said it will use the fresh capital to expand leadership teams, launch new funds and roll out AI-enabled tools for due diligence and limited partner reporting.
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.
“Our primary focus has been picking up companies very early on. Through fund structures, we have also entered into growth stages, because that's the way it can be done in India,” said Sharma.
Its 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.
“This fresh capital will deepen active deal flow, seed new fund strategies and enhance the technology backbone that supports our ecosystem—particularly AI-driven solutions that enable investors and founders to collaborate at speed and scale,” said Venture Catalysts cofounder Anuj Golecha.
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