Blume Ventures, among the earliest venture funds for startups in India, on Tuesday said its inaugural Fund I, along with its extension Fund IA, hasrealized around 5x of the invested capital so far and is on track torealize around 6x gross returns by its full lifecycle in 2024. Fund I was launched in 2011 with an initial capital of Rs 98 crore followed by Rs 24.5 crore for its extension Fund IA in 2013.
The fund had attracted capital from more than 80 investors including the Technology Development Board (Fund I) and SIDBI (Fund IA) and had invested in over 70 startups till 2015.
Blume said Fund I has already realized4.6x(gross returns) of the invested capital and is expected to realize5.4xby 2024 when it is fully closed. Its extension, IA is estimated to realize7.0x(gross returns) by 2024 and has already realized5.8x.
“17 companies (around 20 per cent of the portfolio) generated 98 per cent of the fund’s gross returns. These include GreyOrange, Carbon Clean, Turtlemint, Cashify, Purplle, Zopper, BeaconStac, E2E Networks, Mettl, Exotel, IDfy, Intrcity (Railyatri), Taxi For Sure, Promptec, Zidial, WebEngage, and Infollion,” the VC fund said.
Among these 17 companies, GreyOrange, Carbon Clean, and Turtlemint made around 3x of the entire fund. The loss ratio of this early vintage is close to 50 per cent on the count of startups but significantly lower on the capital, said Blume.
Region-wise, the fund saw a return multiple of 14.9x from Delhi NCR, 5.8x from Mumbai, 2.4x from Bengaluru and 0.5x from others.
Blume Ventures was founded by Karthik Reddy and Sanjay Nath in 2010 to back early-stage technology startups across edtech, fintech, health, commerce, and consumer internet along with robotics, AI, SaaS and enterprise software.
The VC fund raised $60 million Fund II and $102 million Fund III in 2015-16 and 2018-19 respectively followed by $290 million Fund IV in late 2022. Blume also manages Opportunity Funds and Continuity Funds, which have elevated its total assets under management to over $600 million.