9Unicorns Makes Fifth Closure of Maiden Fund At $100 Mn To Invest In Early, Growth Stage Startups

Startup incubator 9Unicorns has announced the fifth closure of its maiden fund at $100 Mn. 

The startup incubator claims to have invested in more than 110 idea and product startups including a few growth stage/series C startups, having reviewed more than 9,000 startups to do so.

Launched in 2020, initially, the fund had a total size of $50 Mn. However, since then, the fund has reached $100 Mn in value. The fourth close of the fund had come in June 2021 at a value of $50 Mn, with the third closure coming in April 2021 at a valuation of $40 Mn.

The accelerator fund has plans to invest $500K to $1 Mn in the idea stage, and up to $2 Mn in high-growth stage Series C and above startups during the rest of 2022.

9Unicorns counts Vedantu, Melorra, ShipRocket, Reshamandi, Biddano, BluSmart, IGP.com, Faarms, Instoried and GOQii. The focus will remain on deeptech, enterprise SaaS, Web 3.0, fintech, media, insuretech, healthtech, edtech and D2C startups.

The syndication also includes some of the country’s leading ‘super angels’ such as — Ritesh Agarwal (OYO), Pankaj Chaddah (Zomato), Anand Chadrashekharan (Facebook), Ramakant Sharma (LivSpace), Amrish Rau (Citrus Pay), Harsh Shah (Fynd), Manindar Gulati (OYO), Vikalp Sahni (Goibibo).

Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, MD and founder of 9Unicorns, said, “Our unique approach to redefining idea stage funding has led to an increased fund size with several leading LPs believing in our strategy.” 

Dr Sharma added, “We invested in 101 deals in 2021 and plan to double that amount this year. We will finish deploying the fund by mid next year, post which we plan to launch our second fund.”

9Unicorns also stated that it allows startups to tap into its Indian business communities in cities beyond the metros, which helps them expand across the country. 

The investment firm allows startups to get customers and distributors to leverage its pre-existing network of more than 5,500 investors, founders and executives.

Earlier this month, Inc42 reported that venture capital firm Quona Capital is likely to seal its third fund at $325-350 Mn, significantly higher than the target corpus of $250 Mn. According to people aware of the development, Quona Accion Inclusion Fund III has already secured $250 Mn. Due to investors’ interest, the target was revised to $325-350 Mn.

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