Continuing its pursuit to create, build and nurture 1000 startup investments by 2025,India’s first, largest and pioneering integrated incubator and accelerator platform Venture Catalysts has expanded its footprint into 11 new Indian cities – Bangalore (Venture Partner), Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, Bilaspur, Chennai, Indore, Jaipur, Navi Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Pune, and Goa.
This latest move is a part of the larger mission of Venture Catalysts to create 10,000 angel investors across 100 startup cities in the country and make startup investments as an asset class available to more individuals. Venture Catalysts has also expanded globally into the UK, the MENA and the USA.
With the latest expansion, Venture Catalyst’s presence is extended to 35 Indian cities, which includes tier-I, tier-II, tier-III and even tier-IV cities. The venture capital fund has reached out to high-profile investors and stakeholders in these cities to identify promising local start-ups and empower them through resource allocation, funding and extending other opportunities. This move presents a unique window of opportunity to the startup community in the country, with entrepreneurs ensured of access to a large number of prominent institutional and individual investors from all over the country and foreign shores.
Over 40 percent of investors with Venture Catalysts are from tier II and III towns. From a mere 400 investors in 2016—most from tier I cities, Venture Catalysts has taken its investor count to 1100+ investors as of mid-2020 while also educating empowering and training another 3000+ HNIs to help them start their journey as angel investors. Some of top startups from tier 2 in the VCats portfolio are IGP, Beardo, Rare Planet and Chai Break.
Speaking on the recent development, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, President and Co-founder, Venture Catalysts, said, “Venture Catalysts is committed to democratizing the early-stage investment in India by making startup investments as an asset class available to all investors. The mission is to expand to 100 cities in India by 2021 and we are very optimistic about the startup landscape in India in the times to come. As part of this geographical expansion strategy, we launched our network in many more Indian cities during the past two months of lockdown and this has been met with an overwhelming response. We received 3000+ registrations for our virtual launch in 11 cities, which indicates the growing cognizance of Venture Catalysts. We also plan to expand our presence into 15 more cities in the coming months”.
Committed to becoming No. 1 globally in early-stage startup investment, Venture Catalysts also conducted Angel Investment Masterclass by Dr. Apoorva Sharma and Mr. Anuj Golecha (Co-founder of VCats) to onboard angel investors and educate them about startup investment. Prominent angel investors like Apurva Chamaria, Reavthy Ashok, Balasubramanian Hari and successful startup founders like Mr Harsh Shah, Co-Founder, Fynd (Acquired by Reliance), Mr Vikas Bagaria, Founder PEE SAFE and Mr. Harsmeet Thind, Founder, Coutloot.
“When the HNIs and the business owners in various regions across the country start listening to the tech startups, they will also start re-looking at and re-inventing their own businesses to stay relevant in the current environment and scale up. The impact is huge and multi-dimensional. This will change the outlook of our businesses for decades to come. With the local HNIs beginning to invest in startups, it will also boost the entrepreneurial activities in the respective regions,” he added further.
Sharing his insights, Gaurav Singhvi, Founder of Financial Supermarket Group, commented, “Venture Catalysts has played a pivotal role in building the startup ecosystem in the country, enabling start-ups across geographies and industries to realize their vision in a seamless manner. It has acted as a bridge between startups and investors, effectively building a unique start-up dedicated framework that has helped many entrepreneurs acquire funding and investors bag multi-million exits.”
Speaking on the importance of Partners, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, commented, “VCats, as a platform, has been successful in institutionalizing how angels from Tier 1 cities and Tier 2/3 cities come on one platform and unlock unique opportunities for budding entrepreneurs. This would not have been possible without an active network of Partners who are one of the most important stakeholders in VCats. We work together as a team to achieve one common objective of creating an unparalleled global network of angels and making it accessible to entrepreneur sitting in any part of the globe.”
