General Catalyst announced $2.3 billion in new capital commitments across three funds. In a press release, the venture capital firm shared that the funds support early-stage startups and growth-stage businesses.
The funds will cover various sectors, such as fintech, energy, health care, and consumer technology. The commitment is one of the biggest in the firm’s history.
This article will explore the details of this investment.
Overview of General Catalyst
General Catalyst is a venture capital and private equity firm focusing on early- and growth-stage investments across various industries. Founded in 2000, General Catalyst has invested in more than 300 companies over the last two decades and has over 80 portfolio companies across North America, Europe, China, India, and Southeast Asia. Notable investments include Airbnb, Datto Inc., Dropbox Inc., Stripe Inc., Warby Parker Co., beauty start-up Glossier Inc., and nutritional product maker Byte Foods.
The company’s core partners are veterans of the tech industry who are experienced in building start-ups from scratch and careful stewards of the firms’ resources. Through their unique combination of capital plus operational experience they provide access to the expertise required to transform a company into a dynamic, fast-growing business. The company operates out of offices in Silicon Valley (LP), Boston (MA) & London (UK).
General Catalyst’s New Funds
General Catalyst announced $2.3 billion in new capital commitments across three funds. This is the VC-firm’s largest fundraising to date and expands their ability to support the technology ecosystem.
Each fund will have a specific focus, and this article will examine what these funds are and General Catalyst’s strategy in launching them.
General Catalyst Growth Fund
General Catalyst Growth Fund is a new strategic fund launched by venture capital firm General Catalyst. The fund will focus on established high-growth companies ready to take their products and services to the next level. In addition, the fund will also invest in early-stage startups with potential for rapid expansion, as well as technology-focused companies that have demonstrated deep customer relationships and have high retention rates.
This growth fund is led by General Catalyst’s Managing Director Noah Mallin, who oversees growth investments specifically designed to help portfolio companies scale beyond early stages of development. The growth funds also provide support and resources in product development, marketing, operations and sales.
The new fund seeks to make investments ranging from $1 million to $10 million per deal across various industries. It will also maintain a sidecar co-investment vehicle for follow-on investments for its portfolio companies when needed. Moreover, the fund plans to work closely with accelerators and incubators–including General Catalyst’s accelerator program — to identify promising early-stage investment opportunities.
The success of this fund lies on General Catalyst’s successful track record of investing in several successful technology companies through its venture capital activity since 2010. With this new growth fund, General Catalyst strives to catalyse further innovation and build on its core thesis of investing in exceptional entrepreneurs with daring visions.
General Catalyst Opportunity Fund
The General Catalyst Opportunity Fund is a new growth fund recently announced by General Catalyst, a venture firm specialising in early-stage investments. The fund will focus on late-stage deals, Series A and later rounds. In addition, the fund will allow the firm to invest in business opportunities beyond the startup and seed phases. This can provide firms with further capital to commercialise products, expand markets or make strategic acquisitions or investments.
The Fund encompasses three distinct vehicles that enable General Catalyst to invest across stages of company life cycles: a growth-focused Opportunity Fund; a Secondary Fund; and an evergreen fund, which invests directly in the portfolios of emerging funds.
As part of this announcement, General Catalyst added two new partners to help oversee the funds, including Gordon Feener and Priya Lakhani. The new funds are expected to launch later this year.
General Catalyst Select Fund
General Catalyst recently announced the launch of three new funds, focusing on investments in North American-based companies. The newest fund to be launched is called General Catalyst Select Fund. This fund will focus on providing growth capital to later-stage venture investments in the US and Canada, and will have closed commitments of up to $2 billion.
The lead investors in General Catalyst’s Select fund include notable institutions such as Fidelity Investments, Capital Group, UBS Asset Management, Microsoft Corporation, Wells Fargo and Singaporean state investment conglomerate Temasek Holdings. Other supporters include prominent family offices and technology-focused firms such as Iconiq Capital, 06 Ventures and Vulcan Capital.
General Catalyst’s Select Fund is intended to provide follow-on capital to more mature companies with successful product/market fit to continue accelerating growth into their next phases. It also seeks out long-term partners for companies by connecting them with other board members who bring meaningful industry knowledge and valuable networks of contacts.
By investing its capital alongside the support from its category-leading investors and partners at General Catalyst Select Fund, the venture firm expects that successful usage of this profit generation opportunity for both existing portfolio companies and new investments will arise from the fund’s expansive network effect going forward.
Capital Commitments
General Catalyst announced it has committed $2.3 billion in capital across three new funds. These funds include a $1.3 billion fund for growth investments, a $650 million fund for early stage investments, and a $350 million fund for select late-stage investments. This brings the total committed capital to $4.4 billion.
These moves mark a notable milestone for the venture capital firm, as it expands its focus on tech investments.
Breakdown of the $2.3 billion in capital commitments
General Catalyst is pleased to announce that the firm has received strong support from leading institutional and family offices for three distinct funds. Through this capital commitment, General Catalyst has secured $2.3 billion. This breakdown includes commitments of $555 million for its sixth venture capital fund, a total of $755 million for its third growth fund, and commitments of $1 billion for its second Opportunity Fund.
The venture capital fund focuses on early-stage technology investments, emphasising enabling founders to build large enterprises across sectors such as consumer, systems and infrastructure, enterprise software, healthcare and fintech. The firms’ notable investments in these industries include the likes of Airbnb, ClassPass, Gusto, Insight Squirrel and Prodigy Finance.
Meanwhile, the Growth Fund offers late-stage companies capital and resources to drive growth at pinpointed milestones in their development plans while supporting them globally with access to broader markets in Asia and Europe through General Catalyst’s broad investor network. Notable investments include AppNexus, Toast Inc., Snapchat and Warby Parker.
Finally, General Catalyst’s Opportunity Funds are designed to invest strategically in existing portfolio companies they have already backed or venture opportunities sourced directly from their connectivity within Silicon Valley’s tech ecosystem by providing additional liquidity resource options or category-growth acceleration strategies when appropriate situations arise opportunistically in their marketplaces around the world. Notable investments from this particular pool are Opendoor Ventures which provide real estate technology solutions for buying & selling homes online quickly & relatively seamlessly using data & automation technology; along with GrabRaises which offer open source job platform connecting top relocatable talents with global employers across industries like insurance carriers, banks & residential / commercial developers based upon cutting edge matching algorithms actively engaging machine learning & AI discrimination tests.
General Catalyst just announced $2.3 billion in new capital commitments across three funds
General Catalyst announced $2.3 billion in new capital commitments across three funds, to fund early and growth stage companies. The funds will focus on investing in startups from various industries, such as healthcare, technology, and financials.
Additionally, the funds will have a team of operating partners, industry veterans, and technologists to help entrepreneurs build and grow their companies.
Let’s take a closer look at General Catalyst’s investment strategy.
Focus on early-stage companies
General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that seeks to invest in early-stage companies in select areas of health care, technology, emerging markets and financial services. The firm’s approach to investing combines deep industry knowledge and operating experience with Silicon Valley-style innovation. They typically deploy a single financing stage but reserve the right to invest further later if growth warrants it.
General Catalyst’s investment strategy focuses on making selective investments in companies with high market potential, strong profitability, talented leadership and the capacity for rapid development or scaling. On the technology side, the firm primarily targets disruptive B2B and B2C companies that leverage customer data, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) or blockchain technology. Healthcare services and systems focus on companies at the intersection of biopharma/life sciences and digital health capabilities working on digital therapeutics, patient engagement/adherence platforms or disease management/prevention solutions. The new fund investments will also seek to capitalise on opportunities in high-level financial technology such as real-time payment applications and online advertising technologies.
By targeting early-stage companies, General Catalyst believes they can find more unique opportunities to drive innovation – capitalising on key trends in their sectors while providing strategic support with their extensive network of executives from many industries across many countries. These relationships include executive members from Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs from emerging markets who have achieved standout success as independent individuals or startups backed by leading venture capitalists including General Catalyst itself.
Support for entrepreneurs
General Catalyst is committed to supporting entrepreneurs in the pursuit of their goals. Our investment strategy is rooted in a long-term view that encourages growth and innovation. We aim to invest in companies across various sectors and stages, from seed stage startups to public market companies.
We are excited to announce our intention to launch three new funds dedicated to seed, early stage, and growth stage investments:
-The Seed Fund: Designed for more nimble opportunities and will focus on high-growth, high-potential startups operating at pre-Series A stages;
-The Early Stage Fund: Will invest primarily in Series A and B startups, helping them further develop their products, markets, teams, and customer base;
-Growth Fund will focus on growth stage investments that enable key strategic initiatives such as geographic expansion or cutting edge product development.
Through these funds we are committed to the financial return of our investments and the impact they can have on the entrepreneurs we support. Alongside financial resources we will bring operational experience and build relationships with our portfolio companies that lay the foundation for lasting value creation.
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