Mela Ventures, today announced the final close of its maiden fund MV Core Tech Fund – I. The SEBI-approved Category-2 AIF fund for early-stage companies was closed at INR 320 Crores.
The capital commitments were made by diverse group 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.
“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. Beyond investments, our initiatives such as FoundrPwr aim to inspire the existing and future entrepreneurs to think beyond the usual.” Parthasarathy NS, said.
Mela Ventures Trust is a SEBI-approved AIF Category-2 fund for early-stage companies. With a goal to build next-gen entrepreneurs, the fund focuses on building a portfolio in areas, such as AI/ML, AR/VR, IoT, Cloud Migration and Deep Technologies.
“We’ve made great progress towards our mission to build next-generation entrepreneurs out of India. In last 18 months, we’ve 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. We continue to focus on our strategy of investing in B2B startups to capitalize on our extensive domain expertise across markets.” Krishnakumar Natarajan said.
Investment Thesis and Fund Facts:
- Mela Ventures’ focusses on investing in early-stage B2B startups, and a select few Series A/B stage startups.
- In view of the changing VC dynamics, and increased traction in the B2B space, we are now open to larger cheque sizes of up to $2M.
- Mela Ventures has invested in four startups as of date and will make three more investments in the next 45-60 days.
- Global leaders on the Advisory Board
Mela Ventures was founded by Industry veterans, Krishnakumar Natarajan and Parthasarathy NS who have co-founded Mindtree and taken it from a startup to a multi-billion-dollar market cap enterprise.