Amid Funding Winter, Venture Catalysts Exits Cusmat With 4.2X Returns In Under 3 Years

Investment firm Venture Catalysts on Friday (September 8) said it has partially exited B2B skilling startup Cusmat with 4.2X returns in less than three years. 

In a statement, Venture Catalysts said it earned an extended internal rate of return (XIRR) of 60% through the deal. The investment platform said that it took an exit during the startup’s $3.5 Mn Series A round in February this year.

The partial exit comes nearly three years after Venture Catalysts first invested in Cusmat as part of its seed round in 2020.

“… The company has posted some impressive growth metrics in the last two years and with that they have offered their initial investors an option to exit with 4X returns. We take pride in supporting such founders. The move has also brought a lot of optimism in the ecosystem, especially during a challenging economic environment for raising primary rounds,” Venture Catalysts founder and MD Apoorva Ranjan Sharma said.

Founded in 2016 by Abhinav Ayan, Soumyaranjan Harichandan and Anirban Jyoti Chakravorty, Cusmat is a mataverse-powered immersive skilling platform that enables large enterprises to upskill their industrial workforce. It also allows entities to assess, train, upskill and track the learning progress of their employees. 

The startup has raised $4.2 Mn in funding since its inception and is backed by names such as Arkam Ventures, Unitus, Better Capital, We Founder Circle, 9Unicorns, MapMyIndia among others.

It caters to multiple big enterprises including names such as Procter & Gamble, ABB, Vedanta, Tata Steel Mining, DHL, DTDC, among others. Apart from India, the company is also said to be already working on expanding operations in other countries in the Asia Pacific (APAC) and Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions. 

The exit comes at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem is witnessing a major upheaval due to funding winter and adverse market conditions. As a result, capital has dried up and companies have undertaken a slew of cost-cutting initiatives, from job cuts to shelving expansion plans, to extend their runway. 

The situation has been especially dire in the homegrown edtech space, which has accounted for the largest number of layoffs at around 10,000. Many edtech startups have also shut shop amid failure to raise funds and inability to create sustainable revenue streams. 

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