Mindtree Founders-Led Mela Ventures Closes Its Maiden Fund At INR 320 Cr

Mindtree founders-led Mela Ventures has announced the final close of its maiden fund, MV Core Tech Fund–I at INR 320 Cr. 

The capital commitments were made by a diverse cohort of global investors, government institutions, tech professionals and family offices – including investments from Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF (NIDIA) and SIDBI Fund of Funds for Startups.

“We have made great progress towards our mission to build next-generation entrepreneurs out of India. In the last 18 months, we have invested in four futuristic organizations, onboarded a coveted team of advisors, and set up strong governance mechanisms. This is the primary reason for us to get an overwhelming response to the fund even in these challenging times,” said Krishnakumar Natarajan, managing partner, Mela Ventures. 

Founded by industry veterans–Natarajan and Parthasarathy NS, Mela Ventures Trust essentially backs early-stage startups. It aims to build next-gen entrepreneurs, thus, focuses on building a portfolio in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), internet of things (IoT), cloud migration and deep technologies. 

Its founders have also co-established Mindtree and taken it from a startup to a multi-billion-dollar market cap enterprise.

“We continue to focus on our strategy of investing in B2B startups to capitalize on our extensive domain expertise across markets,” Natarajan added. 

The company stated that it focuses on investing in early-stage B2B startups, and a select few Series A and Series B stage startups. Seeing a shift in VC dynamics along with increased traction in the B2B space, the company is now open to larger cheque sizes of up to $2 Mn.

“The last eighteen months showed us how much entrepreneurial talent India has and how fearless they can be when it comes to pushing technology and business boundaries. We have a broad footprint of opportunities in front of us and we believe that we are on the path to enable more category leaders,” said, Parthasarathy N.S, managing partner, Mela Ventures.

According to its statement, Mela Ventures has invested in four startups to date and will make three more investments in the next 45-60 days.

“Beyond investments, our initiatives such as FoundrPwr aim to inspire the existing and future entrepreneurs to think beyond the usual,” Parthasarathy N.S further said. 

Just last month, Bengaluru-based customer data platform FirstHive announced a new round of funding led by Mela Ventures. The startup will deploy funds in existing geographies while expanding its footprint in India, North America, Middle East and SEA in the enterprise-marketplace. It will additionally continue to drive innovations in its product offerings.

According to an Inc42 report, FirstHive was one of the tech startups that graduated from the 10th cohort of Microsoft Accelerator. 

In 2020, Mela Ventures completed its first close of its maiden fund worth INR 200 Cr. The ‘MV Core Tech Fund I’ was a SEBI approved Category-2 AIF. According to reports, the company’s maiden fund has received commitments from investors worth INR 130 Cr.