100Unicorns Research
Investment Thesis
100Unicorns (formerly 9Unicorns, rebranded May 2024) is an accelerator-VC hybrid founded in 2020 and headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is part of the Venture Catalysts Group, which describes itself as India's largest multi-stage investing platform. The explicit mission, borrowed from the Y Combinator playbook, is to identify very early-stage Indian startups, back them with capital plus hands-on acceleration (mentorship, sector anchors, corporate governance coaching, and access to a global demo day), and compound a portfolio of category leaders that eventually become unicorns. The firm positions itself as stage- and sector-agnostic, though its actual portfolio skews toward SaaS/enterprise software, fintech, D2C/consumer brands, EV/mobility, climate and clean energy, defense/deeptech hardware, and digital healthcare.
Stage Focus
100Unicorns invests primarily at Pre-Seed and Seed, with selective Series A and Series B follow-ons as portfolio companies scale. Across its five-year track record it reports roughly 112 Seed investments, 30 Series A investments, and 4 Series B investments.
Check Size
First-round checks run $250,000-$1,000,000 (with roughly 60% of Fund II's capital earmarked for these initial checks). Follow-on investments range $500,000-$3,000,000 as companies progress through later rounds (the remaining ~40% of fund capital). Reported stage averages: Seed ~$1.46M, Series A ~$9.45M, Series B ~$22.8M (these appear to reflect total round size rather than 100Unicorns' own check).
Lead Tendency
Mixed. 100Unicorns frequently leads first institutional (pre-seed/seed) rounds as the accelerator-style anchor investor (e.g., leading Ukhi's pre-seed round), but also participates alongside other investors and co-investors in later rounds (e.g., Zypp Electric's Series C alongside IAN Fund and others).
Recent Activity
Fund II ($200M target plus a $100M greenshoe option, for a potential $300M) launched in May 2024 alongside the 9Unicorns-to-100Unicorns rebrand, targeting 200 startups over 5.5 years with a first close of $100M targeted for November 2024. In December 2024, the firm opened its first international office in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), expanding into the MENA region. The firm reports roughly 24 investments per year on average over the past five years, with 9 in 2025 and continued deployment into 2026 (most recently a pre-seed/seed round in Ukhi, a biomaterials/sustainable-packaging startup). Two long-tenured partners, Ankit Jain and Rajesh Mane, departed in 2025 to launch their own VC firm, Spotlight Strategic Partners.
Portfolio Highlights
100Unicorns reports roughly 175 startups funded, 2 unicorns (Shiprocket and Niyo), and 13 exits, the most recent being digital-health platform Fitterfly's acquisition by PB Healthcare Services (PB Fintech's health arm) in November 2025. Other notable names across the portfolio include Zypp Electric (EV-as-a-service, now preparing for a potential public listing with Axis Capital and SBI Capital), BrightChamps, Videoverse, Renee Cosmetics, IGP/Join Ventures, Wiom, Snapmint, Vedantu, Zetwerk, Assiduus Global, TruNativ, and BluSmart. The portfolio is notably diversified: ~12% deeptech, ~22% women-led companies, and ~20% founders from Tier II/III Indian cities.
Team
- Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma — Co-Founder and Managing Partner (also Managing Director, Venture Catalysts Group)
- Anil Jain — Co-Founder
- CA Anuj Golecha — Co-Founder
- Gaurav Jain — Co-Founder
- Rishabh Golchha — Partner
- Lumani Shah — Principal
- Poonam Khandelwal — Principal
- Anish Pai — Associate
- Vishakha Purohit — Associate
- Rishank Kala — Analyst
- Vinod Keni — CFO
- Prinson Renjal — IR, Legal & Compliance
- Manoj Ahire — MENA (Abu Dhabi office)
- Mannem Hanumantha Kumar — MENA (Abu Dhabi office)
The team totals roughly 37 people across India and the UAE, run by four co-founders under Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma's leadership, reflecting a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo-GP model.
Decision Process
Partnership-driven: co-founders and partners jointly evaluate deals, drawing on a network of "sector anchors" (industry veteran advisors) as part of diligence and portfolio support. The firm reviews an unusually high volume of inbound (14,000+ startups reviewed against 157+ actual investments), consistent with a structured, funnel-driven accelerator process rather than ad hoc angel-style decisions.
Founder Preferences
100Unicorns explicitly targets outlier, high-conviction founders solving large problems, with an articulated preference for technical/domain-expert founders from Tier II/III Indian cities as well as women-led teams — a differentiated sourcing thesis relative to metro-only accelerators.
Geographic Focus
Primarily India (~85% of deployed capital), with the remaining ~15% spread across the US, Middle East (UAE/ADGM), Africa, and other parts of Asia. The 2024 Abu Dhabi office marked the firm's first deliberate push to build an India-UAE investment corridor.