“That is the fifth shut however the fund is prone to shut at round $120 million because the startup ecosystem is bullish at present. We’re trying a 7% or increased stake within the startup we put money into,” the funding agency’s founding accomplice Apoorva Ranjan Sharma instructed ET.
9Unicorns’s maiden accelerator fund, arrange in 2020, gives funding of round $300,000 to $1 million to startups within the first spherical and round $500,000 to $2 million in subsequent rounds with co-investors. LPs embody high-net-worth people (HNIs), massive familiy companies and establishments in Egypt, the UAE, Africa, Singapore, London and Africa. 9Unicorns didn’t reveal the names of the LPs. These investments are routed by way of a feeder fund arrange in Mauritius.
A feeder fund is a fund car arrange outdoors India, for instance in Singapore or Mauritius, which then invests in capital markets in India.
In line with Sharma, it has invested near $45-50 million throughout numerous startups, together with edtech agency Vedantu and logistics aggregator Shiprocket. It has additionally backed the likes of Biddano, BluSmart, IGP.com, Faarms, Instoried and GoQii.
Enterprise Catalysts, the father or mother firm of 9Unicorns, has invested in over 150 startups, together with OYO Rooms, BharatPe, RentoMojo, FYND, Innov8 and Beardo.
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“We invested in 101 offers in 2021 by way of 9Unicorns’s maiden fund and plan to double that quantity this 12 months. We’ll end deploying the fund by the center of subsequent 12 months, after which we plan to launch our second fund.” Sharma stated.
Whilst 9Unicorns is prone to lengthen its maiden fund measurement, there will probably be elevated scrutiny from the fund earlier than signing a cheque.
“Going forward, due diligence will get tighter, Sharma stated. “Delay in funding just isn’t as a result of VCs aren’t placing in cash, it’s only as a result of they wish to be doubly cautious that no matter is dedicated will probably be delivered,” Sharma stated.
His feedback come at a time when a bunch of startups are going through elevated scrutiny on their financials amid a funding slowdown, particularly in late-stage financing.
“The data gathering course of must be very sturdy nowadays. When an organization applies to 9Unicorn, we’ve got developed a powerful knowledge engine. Concept-stage corporations don’t have a lot knowledge however our authorized and enterprise due-diligence workforce is engaged on alternative ways to strengthen the method,” Sharma stated.
“We’ve been very cautious to place cash in corporations and we’ve got invested in corporations with sturdy enterprise fashions,” he added.
The fund is eager to put money into improvements and new expertise in sectors resembling deeptech, web3, fintech, media tech, insuretech and healthtech.
“We’re enthusiastic about new sectors like metaverse and we’ve got simply dedicated to 1 [such company] for a giant funding. Tokenisation, agritech, and supply chain and semiconductor corporations which might be doing a little disruptive work are very thrilling for us,” he added.
