VC fund General Catalyst looks to invest up to $1bn in Indian startups

NEW DELHI: Venture capital fund General Catalyst, which has invested in companies like Zepto, Spinny and Cred, is looking to invest $800 million to $1 billion over the next three years in Indian startups.

Having just closed $8-billion fund, it is eyeing investments in manufacturing, fintech, healthcare, energy transition and artificial intelligence (AI) and defence, said General Catalyst CEO & MD Hemant Taneja.

"We are paying attention to India's potential leadership in AI, certainly as a talent and the expertise to innovate, and second is manufacturing and the role of India as a supply chain leader as the world decouples from China," he told TOI.

Defence has emerged a key priority for General Catalyst and India can play a role, Taneja indicated. "There is an important need to create AI-enabled deterrence across democracies - India, Europe and the US. There is a fair amount of innovation that is needed. We are investors in a few companies in Europe and the US and we are trying to catalyse some other investments."

Taneja said the integration of Venture Highways has enabled his fund to gain more scale in India. He also said that the flow of capital into Indian companies will be "more interesting" than before. "Public market valuations are exciting. If public markets are buoyant then it attracts more capital in the private sector and India is one the fastest growing economies. From our standpoint, and we look at the long-term, India is a great place to be investing. India will be a great place for innovation and private investments in general."

The VC fund announced the launch of General Catalyst Institute in India, which is similar to initiatives in the UK and the US. GCI intends to serve as a platform where startups, policymakers and other stakeholders can interact and exchange views at a time when the entrepreneurial ecosystem is thriving.

GCI president Teresa Carlson flagged regulation of AI as an area where discussions with govt were underway. "We want to ensure that there are no overreaching policies around AI. If there are policies that are too overreaching for startups, they won’t be able to survive. That's an area where we are talking about to the govt, especially on things like liability."
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