India-based venture capital firm Venture Highway (VH) announced it is merging with General Catalyst (GC).
Launched in 2014, VH is known for writing the first checks for companies like Meesho, Moglix, Applied Intuition, BetterPlace, and Chalo.
As for GC, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based venture capital firm conducted its first deal in India in 2019 and aggressively invested more since then. GC has invested in India-based companies like Cred, Spinny, Orange Health, and Loop). The combined firm sees tremendous potential in India to support the next generation of founders there while simultaneously supporting collaborations between the two countries.
VH was originally co-founded in 2014 by Neeraj Arora (former Chief Business Officer of WhatsApp and a renowned angel investor in Indian startups). Driven by a passion for giving back, Arora started VH to nurture India’s entrepreneurial tech talent from their early stages to global success. In 2018, Priya Mohan joined Arora after exiting her startup Together.
According to TechCrunch, the firms plan to invest at least $500 million to $1 billion in India. GC manages over $25 billion altogether. By combining with VH, GC is now one of the largest venture capital firms in India.
The potential combination of GC and VH goes back nearly seven years as Arora and GC’s Hemant Taneja first met and built a relationship of deep trust and respect, fueled by their shared interest in India, among other things.