India’s venture capital firm Venture Highway has merged with General Catalyst, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. The two firms are aiming to create the most powerful platform to support the next generation in India.
“By combining our US seed team, Venture Highway in India, and La Famiglia, in Europe, we’re committing to become great at supporting world-class founders at the earliest stage…The combined abilities of the two firms will enable us to be more hands-on, and effective, going forward in India,” Hemant Taneja said, CEO of General Catalyst (formerly Twitter).
Venture Highway, a fund that invests in Indian startups, was founded in 2014 by Neeraj arora. He is formerly the chief business officer at WhatsApp and angel investor. The fund provided early cheques to companies like Meesho, Moglix MPL, ShareChat BetterPlace and Chalo.
“The GC-VH Unison dates back to almost 7 years ago when Neeraj Taneja and Hemant Taney first met. They built a relationship based on deep trust and mutual respect, fueled, among other things, by their shared interest for India,” said General Catalysts.
General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that has backed startups such as CRED, Spinny and Orange Health.
General Catalyst says that the joint firm will play an important role in amplifying Indo-US-European collaboration in AI technology, industry and talent. They will also develop incubation and partnerships strategies for specific industries to build large Indian enterprises for the world.
Taneja said last year that General Catalyst expected 10-20% to go towards Indian startups from its new $4.6 billion Fund.
South Park Commons, a Silicon Valley-based company, announced recently the opening of their first international location (outside of the US) in Bengaluru. Binny Bansal, Flipkart co-founder and the early-stage venture capital fund have collaborated to expand into India.