9Unicorns announces third close of accelerator fund at $40 million

New Delhi: 9Unicorns has announced the third close of its first accelerator at $40 million (about Rs 298 crore) to fund idea-stage startups in the country. The Venture Catalysts-backed accelerator's total fund size is $70 million (about Rs 520 crore). It plans to mark the final close this year.

The third close witnessed participation from global and Indian industrialists and businesses, as well as limited partners, including Haldiram's, Indian Bank and Ahmedabad-based Chona Family Office.

"The sector-agnostic fund has already committed investments in about 40 startups within seven months of its first close. Of that, 25% of startups have already raised bigger rounds of investments within a range of 2x-4x valuation," according to a statement released on Friday.


9Unicorns plans to fund about 150 early-stage startups in deeptech, B2B SaaS, media, FMCG, fintech, insurtech, healthtech, edtech and travel logistics among other sectors over the next year.

Its current portfolio includes:

• Toch.ai, an interactive video shopping platform
• Klub, a revenue-based financing firm
• Janani, a fertility care provider
• ExtraaEdge, a marketing automation firm
• Deepsync, an audio production automation firm
• Monrow, a D2C lifestyle footwear brand
• Qin1, an education technology firm

"As a fund, we aim to back early-stage firms that have the potential to become billion-dollar companies in the future, Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, founder and managing director at 9Unicorns, said in the statement. "We have made our third close much before our set target and are looking to make the final close soon to propel an already thriving startup economy."

In addition to the third close, the Mumbai-based accelerator fund has also launched Catalysts Program, an initiative to build an open community of founders, chief experience officers and ecosystem drivers to fund and mentor early-stage startups.

The programme will function along with the 9Unicorns Fund and aim to disrupt the traditional venture capital structure and build a network of more than 1,000 catalysts worldwide, the statement read. The idea is to identify and shortlist curated startups for 9Unicorns for investment and co-investment, mentor existing portfolio startups for 3-5 months and introduce institutional investors for next-round of fifinancing in 9Unicorns deals.

As an accelerator fund, 9Unicorns invests around $150,000 for 5-7% equity per startup at the idea stage.