Chennai: India’s 9Unicorns Accelerator Fund has announced its first close of Rs 100 crore (US $14 million). The fund will invest in over 100 early stage start-ups, with the goal of writing the first external cheque.
9Unicorns is founded by the Venture Catalysts (VCats) founders Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain. They highlight a track record of over 30 multi-baggers already in a portfolio of more than 75 home-grown start-ups in India, which include BharatPe, Beardo, PeeSafe and Fynd in which VCats was a seed-stage investor.
Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, who was also the angel investor in SoftBank-backed Oyo Rooms said in a statement, “there’s no better time to bet on Indian entrepreneurs than today. We are witnessing a surge in start-ups who are focused on solving Indian and global problems born out of various parts of India. I anticipate the number of unicorns in India will grow 4x, from 36 today to over 140 in the near future.”