Mela Ventures on Monday announced the close of its maiden fund of Rs 200 crore, which will be invested in business-centred early-stage tech startups. Mela Ventures has been started by Mindtree founders Krishnakumar Natarajan and N S Parthasarathy.
The SEBI-approved fund for early stage companies, has already garnered Rs 130 crore from a prominent set of investors, the company said in a statement. The fund is backed by institutional investors, global technology leaders and seasoned startup investors.
Commenting on the first close, Krishnakumar Natarajan, Managing Partner, Mela Ventures, said: "We are on a mission to build next-generation entrepreneurs out of India. Towards this mission, Mela Ventures will support early-stage companies using cutting edge technologies to build B2B solutions targeted at global enterprises. We are extremely excited to get such an overwhelming response from investors even during challenging times. This gives us confidence that we have a right mission and are here with the right strategy.”
Mela Ventures aims to make four to five investments in the next 18 months with a ticket size of Rs 7-10 crore each.
Parthasarathy N.S, Managing Partner, Mela Ventures, said: "Entrepreneurs continue to innovate and solve impactful problems for large enterprises. And they realise that beyond the funds, they can immensely benefit by the Expertise, Experience and Empathy that we bring to the table. Many of our investors are technology professionals, who share the same passion as much as we do, for meaningful technology, startup community and building Indian entrepreneurs. We look forward to this new and exciting journey."
Mela Ventures Trust is a SEBI-approved AIF (Alternative Investment Funds) Category-2 fund for early-stage companies. With a goal to build next-gen entrepreneurs, the fund will focus on building a portfolio in areas, such as AI/ML, AR/VR, IoT, Cloud Migration and Deep Technologies.