Niko Bonatsos Leaves General Catalyst to Launch New VC Firm with Friends
Investor Niko Bonatsos has left General Catalyst to start a new early-stage VC firm aiming to back young founders and consumer businesses.
Bonatsos is not the only investor leaving General Catalyst. Recently, others like Deep Nishar and Adam Valkin also departed. While most have stayed quiet about their moves, Bonatsos said his exit was mutual. He enjoyed his time at General Catalyst and learned a lot.
He hasn’t picked a name for his new firm or started raising money yet. However, he has a team in mind, featuring top founders and investors. Bonatsos wants to support young founders, a trend he noticed before it became popular. Many new leaders in AI, like Mercor’s Brendan Foody, are young or even college dropouts.
He also wants to invest in new consumer businesses, which he thinks are often overlooked in favor of enterprise-focused AI startups. General Catalyst has changed its strategy and is now called an “investment and transformation company,” but they still make seed-stage investments. Last year, they brought in Yuri Sagalov to lead their seed investing efforts in the US.