General Catalyst raises $8B in fresh funds to back startups globally

U.S. venture capital giant General Catalyst has announced a fresh $8 billion in funds as it looks to ramp up its investments in multi-sector early-stage startups globally, with a specific focus on the U.S., Europe, and India.

The capital constitutes around $4.5 billion for its “core VC funds” which spans seed and growth equity funding, while $1.5 billion is earmarked for its so-called “creation strategy” which is focused on helping repeat or “proven” founders build new companies. An additional $2 billion is for “separately managed accounts” — which are typically special investment vehicles created for a single institutional investor.

“As a global investment company that seeks to partner with the world’s most ambitious entrepreneurs to drive transformation, resilience, and applied AI, we believe this capital will turbocharge our investment theses across AI, defense and intelligence, climate and energy, industrials, healthcare and fintech,” General Catalyst CEO and managing director Hemant Taneja (pictured above), wrote in a blog post today.

Founded in 2000, General Catalyst has backed some of the biggest U.S. technology startups, including Airbnb, Instacart, Snap, Kayak, Stripe, and HubSpot, though it has backed numerous international companies too such as Deliveroo in Europe. More recently, General Catalyst has pursued global growth through merging with local entities, including La Famiglia in Europe last year and, more recently, Venture Highway in India.

General Catalyst now has around $25 billion in assets under management.

Today’s announcement comes shortly after reports emerged that General Catalyst was working on a “continuation” fund worth up to $1 billion, a mechanism through which it would continue to hold and invest in its portfolio companies beyond what would be a typical VC fund timescale — however, there is no word on whether that is still something under consideration.

Elsewhere, General Catalyst is also reportedly gearing up to make its first investment in Saudi Arabia.

General Catalyst’s latest funds are among the largest to emerge from a U.S. VC firm since Tiger Global’s $12.7 billion tranche more than two years ago, though it dwarves the $2.3 billion raised by Index Ventures earlier this year, as well as Andreessen Horowitz’s $7.2 billion.