General Catalyst , a US-based early stage to growth capital investor, will merge its India-focused venture capital initiatives with Venture Highway’s early-stage technology focused venture capital firm to create a brand new platform.
The US-based venture firm will invest in new projects through (now called General Catalyst India).
General Catalyst plans to deploy between $500m and $1bn of its latest fund across early stage and expansion capital. According to a report in the Financial Times a General Catalyst fund of $6 billion is currently being crafted.
The first reports on General Catalyst acquiring Venture Highway’s Portfolio were published in January of this year, after the US-based company had reached out to several people to lead their India investments.
Priya Mohan is the Managing Partner of Venture Highway. She told YourStory that Venture Highway’s Active Portfolio would be a part General Catalyst India.
“We have stopped investing from the Venture Highway Fund III, and our active portfolios from Fund I and II will now be a part General Catalyst India,” said Mohan. She added that Venture Highway’s team will now run operations for General Catalyst India.
Venture Highway was founded in 2014 by Neeraj arora, the former Chief Business Officer of WhatsApp. Venture Highway has invested in early stage companies such as ecommerce platform Meesho and business-to-business commerce platforms Moglix and BetterPlace.
Hemant Taneja is the CEO and Managing director at General Catalyst. He told YourStory that the merger was the result of nearly two-and-a half years’ worth of negotiations.
“We have been investing for five years in India and with the new leadership we are excited about India’s opportunity.” Taneja added, “India has changed since we had our first conversation with Venture Highway about two and a half years ago.
General Catalyst, founded in 1999, has made venture bets on India, including the fintech company CRED and the AP automation and supply-chain financing company CashFlo.
General Catalyst is a global investor in companies from a variety of sectors, including Stripe, AirBnB Canva and Deliveroo.
Taneja said, “We will invest aggressively in early stage and growth fund as well as our Creation Fund for venture buyout and incubation.”
The $800 million Creation Fund, which will be launched in 2022 by General Catalyst, will work with entrepreneurs and executives in order to incubate new ideas or transform existing companies in areas of core interest.
Mohan said that while General Catalyst India’s investments will remain sector-agnostic the firm will deploy capital to AI-led use case in healthcare, defence, manufacturing, and other sectors.
Anand Chandrasekaran stepped down as the leader of General Catalyst’s India investments in April.
As part of the restructuring, Venture Highway has lost its Founder Samir SOOD as well as SaaS and Consumer Investment Lead Aviral Bhatnagar. The current team of Venture Highway will continue to work alongside General Catalyst India.