Kissflow’s Founder Floats VC Firm To Invest In Idea Stage Startups

SUMMARY

In the first phase, Sambandam’s family office will deploy INR 25 Cr to support 25 to 50 early stage startups

In the second phase, the VC firm will raise capital from LPs to make follow-on investments in startups funded during the first phase

MudhalVC has already invested in 15 early stage startups across diverse sectors, including foodtech, electric vehicles, healthtech, SaaS, and biotech

SaaS startup Kissflow’s founder and CEO Suresh Sambandam has floated a new venture capital (VC) firm to back idea stage startups in Tamil Nadu.

Called MudhalVC, the investment firm plans to invest close to INR 125 Cr in two phases over the next three to four years. In the first phase, Sambandam’s family office will deploy INR 25 Cr to support 25 to 50 early stage startups, with ticket sizes ranging between INR 25 Lakh and INR 1 Cr.

In the second phase, the VC firm will raise capital from limited partners (LPs) to make follow-on investments in startups funded during the first phase. As per the company, the second phase will span a period of three to four years.

In a statement, MudhalVC said that it has already backed 15 early stage ventures across sectors, including foodtech, electric vehicles, healthtech, SaaS, and biotech. These startups include Amura, Bversity, BookingBee, MeenSatti, Mushroom MaMa, Pickmyad, Social Gallery, InspectionOne, Bad Boy, Crrectmate, and Trashbotics, just to count a few.

The development comes at a time when a growing number of funds and VC in the Indian startup space are focussed on providing funding and guidance to early stage startups. As many as 78 early-stage VC funds launched in 2022, while another 31 early-stage funds with a total corpus of $1.8 Bn were unveiled in 2023.

So far this year, more than two dozen new early-stage micro VC funds (under $60 Mn in corpus) have launched with a total corpus of well over half a billion dollars.

Earlier this month, early-stage VC firm Capital A launched its Fund II with a target corpus of INR 400 Cr. In September, another early-stage VC firm z21 Ventures also marked the first close of its $40 Mn Fund II at $20 Mn.