Blume Ventures Announces First Close Of Continuity Fund At INR 200 Cr

Venture capital (VC) firm Blume Ventures has announced the first close of its new opportunity-cum-continuity fund, Fund 1Y. This is the VC firm’s third growth fund.

Blume said in a statement that it has already raised INR 200 Cr of the INR 400 Cr target corpus for the round.

Separately, the VC firm also closed its Fund IV at $290 Mn last year.

Incidentally, Blume Ventures did not specify the average ticket size of the investments made through Fund 1Y or the number of startups it would invest in.

The VC firm will invest a part of the capital raised to buy out strong startups such as IntrCity, Cashify, Carbon Clean and Zopper from its Fund 1 and related investment vehicles and use the remaining to invest in startups from other funds.

Commenting on the development, Vikram Gawande, VP of growth investments at Blume Ventures, stated, “We have a fabulous set of winners in our portfolio, and I am glad that we have been able to raise additional capital to stay invested longer and go deeper in our winners. We believe in the power of public markets and are confident that businesses such as Purplle, Zopper, Cashify and others in this portfolio are well entrenched on the path.”

Blume has also raised similar-sized Opportunity Funds in 2018, 2021 and 2022 to invest across startups such as Exotel, Grey Orange Robotics, Smallcase, slice, Unacademy and WebEngage.

Karthik Reddy, cofounder and partner at Blume Ventures, added, “Blume is one of the first VCs in India to have executed this structure with the new investors also being onshore. The current environment and our unique strategy allow us to balance the interests of our current and incoming investors and hold the best of our companies for another 3-4 years before eventual public listing and creating wealth for the local ecosystem. It’s a win-win solution for all involved.”

Blume’s INR 200 Cr first close follows the lead of tens of investors who have launched or closed funds this year to invest in Indian startups. Per Inc42 data, funds worth more than $3 Bn have already been launched this year.

On top of that, 2022 saw 126 investors launch investment funds worth more than $18 Bn, putting into perspective the amount of dry powder investors in India currently have at their disposal.

Recent fund launches include Avaana Capital’s $70 Mn first close earlier this week with a target corpus of $100-125 Mn, Airavat Capital’s Airavat Global Technology Fund R (AGTF R), which will be based out of GIFT City and AWE Funds’ first close at $15 Mn with a target corpus of $45 Mn.