Discord and Mercor investor Niko Bonatsos has left General Catalyst, preparing for a new VC firm

After leading General Catalyst’s seed strategy for many years, Niko Bonatsos has left the company. He is known for supporting an IPO-prospect Discord and $10 billion startup MercorBonatsos told TechCrunch that he plans to launch a new VC firm with “friends.”

Bonatsos is the latest investor to exit General Catalyst, a company that has grown more recently than ever before. Over the past few years, General Catalyst has unveiled a financial management businessa direct approach to PE writing AI updatesand the Customer Value Fund (CVF), which provides late-stage startups and non-performing loans secured by recurring income.

Other recent departures from General Catalyst include Deep Nishar and Kyle Doherty, who led the last round of ‘Endurance’, and Adam Valkin, who led the initial fund alongside Bonatsos and Trevor Oelschig, TechCrunch. report last year.

Unlike his former colleagues, who refused to comment on their departure, Bonatsos explained that his departure was a mutual decision, saying that his time at GC was a “wonderful experience,” which provided a lot of “learning”.

Bonatsos said he has yet to decide on a name for his new company or start fundraising. He declined to specify the size of his team, saying only that the people he is considering include founders and investors “at the top of their game.”

Other topics that Bonatsos wants to pursue include supporting young startups, which he says he discovered a few years ago, before it became popular in the market. Indeed, many of the founders of the AI ​​wave are young and include college dropouts like Mercor founder Brendan Foody.

Bonatsos is also interested in investing in consumer startups, a sector he sees as “underappreciated” in a market crowded with business-focused AI startups.

Although General Catalyst has changed to “Investment and Transformation companyLast year, GC hired Yuri Sagalov, a former YC partner who also founded Wayfinder Ventures, to lead the US seed round.