Yes Bank Ltd has become a limited partner (LP) in two Venture Catalysts Group funds: Beams Fintech Fund, a category-II alternate investment fund (AIF) and the early-stage sector-agnostic, 9 Unicorns Accelerator Fund, by investing an undisclosed sum.
Venture Catalysts is an integrated incubator that offers funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities to startup founders, right from their inception to the growth stages of the journey. Since its founding in 2016, the firm has backed more than 110 startups across multiple sectors, with over 35 successful exits.
Venture Catalysts launched the Beams Fintech Fund in 2022 and the 9 Unicorns Accelerator Fund in 2020. With a fresh infusion from Yes Bank, both the funds will be looking to double down on their investments in tech startups.
Beams Fintech Fund, launched in 2022, will actively invest in growth stage fintech companies including embedded finance, software-as-a-service (SaaS) for banks and financial institutions, personal finance management and the neobanking space. The fund, according to a statement, is in the process of adding strategic investors and targets to deploy $180 million across 10-12 Series B and C investments over next three years.
On the other hand, 9 Unicorns Accelerator Fund, a category I AIF, launched by the founding members of Venture Catalysts, is a sector agnostic investor that funds early-stage startups. To date, it has invested $100 million in 9 unicorns.
“Collaborating with and supporting tech companies to ideate and experiment on various use cases such as agriculture, healthcare, commerce, education, logistics, open banking, supply chain finance, payments, digital banking, among others has been a key driver of Yes Bank’s innovation strategy,” the bank said in a statement.
Yes Bank is known for working closely with the tech space. The private lender was the first Bank in India to open up its APIs to multiple tech firms, way back in 2015. Even early this year, under its startup enablement effort, the lender introduced a program – Yes Bank Agri Infinity – for digital financing options in the food and agriculture sector.