Blume launches 'Founders Fund' to back startups outside its core investment program

Venture capital firm Blume Ventures has launched its ‘Founders Fund’ to invest in startups outside its core investment program and engage with more founders.

According to Blume, the program will utilise 1-2% of the core investment funds and invest in a range of $25K to $100K, depending on the size of the round, in startups to strengthen its relationship with founders. This program will not reserve capital to invest beyond this first cheque. 

The program will be managed by Sarita Raichura who joined Blume from Indian Angel Network in Jan 2020 and will be mentored by Sanjay Nath, one of the partners at the firm. 

Commenting on the launch of the new fund Nath said, “Founder journeys are about taking the long road, and all start with relationships and trust established early on with their investors. We are excited to bring Blume’s aggregate brand value, networks and knowledge base to help our Blume Founders Fund cohort build, hire, collaborate and scale.”.

Through the new fund, Blume intends to accommodate strong founders who want to be a part of the VC’s network for several reasons including competition with an existing portfolio, sectoral focus mismatch, and portfolio size limitation. Blume further expects to nurture founders who are either Blume alums or Blume founders as well as advisors who have a strong long-term affinity to the venture capital firm.

Blume’s new fund kicked off the program in the last quarter of 2020 and has made 5 investments which include Chingari, indiagold, Monrow and two undisclosed startups in the field of autonomous robotics and fintech.

While short video sharing app Chingari had already raised capital; indiagold, a digital gold loan startup founded by Deepak Abbot and Nitin Misra, is in stealth mode. Monrow, the third disclosed investment by the new fund, is a millennial savvy lifestyle DTC brand.

One of the busiest venture capital firms in India, Blume had closed its Fund III at $102 million in February 2020 to back early-stage startups followed by the final close of its opportunity fund at $41 million to back its growth-stage portfolio startups.