9Unicorns announces fifth close of maiden fund at USD 100 mn

Early-to-growth stage accelerator fund 9Unicorns has announced the closure of its maiden USD100 million fund. The fund was launched in late 2020 with a total size of $50 million but has double its fund portfolio to $100 million, buoyed by the overall positive sentiment in the Indian start-up ecosystem.




The Venture fund has so far invested in 110+ idea and product startups including Vedantu, Melorra, ShipRocket, FloBiz, Reshamandi, Biddano, BluSmart, Lido, IGP.com, Faarms, and GoQii among others. In 2022, it expects to invest $500,000 to $1 million in idea-stage startups and up to $2 million in high-growth stage startups, which typically are Series C and above.

Commenting on the fifth close, Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Managing Director and Founder of 9Unicorns, said, “Our unique approach to redefine idea-stage funding has led to an increased fund size with several leading LPs believing in our strategy.Besides, last year was one of the best times for the startup ecosystem with a funding rush. We invested in 101 deals in 2021 and plan to double that amount this year. We will finish deploying the fund by mid next year, post which we plan to launch our second fund.”

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The startup landscape has been an overachiever in 2021 as well with the creation of 46 unicorns, placing India in the third spot amongst the largest unicorn hubs, globally. According to a recent NASSCOM-PGA Labs report, the first quarter of 2021 witnessed a heightened deal activity, with 81 per cent of the funding driven by early-stage and growth-stage deals. The report added that 76 per cent of the total number of deals were small-ticket with average size of $25 million and less.