Exclusive: Venture Catalysts Eyes INR 900 Cr Corpus For Syndicated Fund ‘VC Grid’

Mumbai-based Venture Catalysts is looking to close its early-stage startup fund ‘VC Grid’ later this year with a total corpus of INR 900 Cr (about $110 Mn), sources told Inc42.

The syndicated fund, which began investing in early 2024, will raise capital primarily from family offices, ultra high net worth individuals (UHNIs), and entrepreneurs. 

The fund will make investments in the range of $0.5 Mn to $1.5 Mn and plans to deploy the entire capital within the next two years. “This fund was launched to help the family offices in this country connect with the right founders,” a source close to the development said. 

VC Grid has already onboarded 32 family offices as limited partners, and intends to take this number to 100 by the end of the year. The fund will also provide coinvestment opportunities to its limited partners. 

Venture Catalysts has made six investments from the new fund till now. While its investments in Ideal Insurance and Autocracy Machinery were announced publicly, the fund has also invested in NowPurchase and Sova Health, sources told us.

VC Grid is expected to close another 3-4 deals this month and is eyeing around 35-40 investments in 2024, according to one of the sources.

The new fund is being led by Vansh Oberoi, who is currently the chief investment officer of Venture Catalysts. Oberoi has led over 160+ deals till date and is on the board of Castler, NimbleBox among other startups.

Questions sent to Venture Catalysts on the development didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story. 

Overall, Venture Catalysts has invested over $700 Mn in more than 300 startups till date. The Mumbai-based firm claims to have presence in over seven countries and has a portfolio value of over $4 Bn. 

It has scored exits from over 93 startups till date, including fintech unicorn BharatPe, Reliance-acquired Fynd, Rooter, and Pee Safe.