Venture Catalysts, a startup incubator, closed 57 deals in 2018, helping raise Rs 125 crore for startups in its portfolio, as per data from startup-tracking firm Tracxn. The deals ranged from Rs 3 crore to Rs 13 crore.
During the year, its portfolio firms raised Rs 380 crore in total. Founder and president Apoorv Ranjan Sharma stated that the investors were primarily frontier-II towns, which is what Venture Catalysts focuses on.
The number of deals it closed in 2018 was more that of its peers like Blume Ventures (30), Lets Venture (12), Orios Venture Partners (11), and Kae Capital and Indian Angel Network (10 each). Venture Catalysts had closed the highest number of investments in 2017 as well.
“We are focusing on sectors like FMCG, healthcare, food … all of which are present in tier-II cities,” said Sharma. The biggest investment in 2018 was Rs 13 crore in ImpactGuru, a medical crowdfunding platform.
Venture Catalysts was set up with an aim to make it easier for investors outside top cities to invest in startups, and at the same time, scout for investment opportunities in small cities and towns.
Other businesses that Venture Catalysts invested in the past year include medical tourism company Hospals, furniture rental firm RentoMojo, cryptocurrency exchange Koinex and online furniture firm Pepperfry.
Venture Catalysts has a network of more than 3,000 angel investors in India across towns like Surat, Nagpur, Raipur, Lucknow and Ranchi, as well as in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, London and Hong Kong. It has active incubation centres in eight cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Dehradun and Kanpur.