Blume Ventures raises $102 mn in Fund III to back early-stage start-ups

Homegrown early-stage venture capital firm, Blume Ventures on Wednesday announced the final close of Blume Ventures Fund III at $102 million (about Rs 730 crore).

After a first close in late 2018, the final close was completed in December 2019, a statement said.

Blume started in 2011 raising an entirely domestic Rs 100 crore fund from HNIs (high net-worth individuals) and subsequently raised a $60 million fund (Rs 400 crore) in 2016. It claimed that its the first entirely homegrown fund to raise a third fund and raise over $100 million in a single fund.

"Blume's newest fund will continue to back early stage startups focusing on the two distinct opportunity sets that India offers, opportunities that leverage the mobile-led explosion of the Indian digital-first economy and Indian engineering and science translated to global market opportunities," it added.

The fund III portfolio already includes more than 10 investments including HealthAssure (healthcare), Taaraka, Stage3 (consumer), Jai Kisan, TartanSense, Procol (agri), Classplus, Tapchief and LeverageEdu (edu-tech).

Through Fund I and II, Blume had invested in companies like Unacademy, Grey Orange, Spinny, Turtlemint, Dunzo, Healthifyme, Purplle, Railyatri (IntrCity) and others.

"We are very proud of our founders and team who have delivered outstanding performance over the last three years, thereby strengthening the Blume brand and track record immensely," Karthik Reddy, co-founder and managing partner at Blume Ventures said.