Blume Ventures in $30m first close on second India fund

Iconiq Capital is the lead investor in the fund, according to an Economic Times story linked to from Blume's Twitter account. Other LPs include IIFL Wealth, the government-backed India Aspiration Fund, and Catamaran Ventures.

The venture capital firm raised INR1 billion ($15 million) for its debut fund, which closed in 2012, with most of the capital coming from domestic sources. The bulk of the Fund II corpus is expected to comprise commitments from overseas investors, such as institutional players, corporations, family offices and high net worth individuals.

With more capital at its disposal, Blume will write larger checks. While Fund I has typically invested between $100,000 and $250,000 in each company as one of several participants in rounds, Fund II will start at $250,000 and go up to $500,000 or more.

"We will be more significant in the first round - both in stake an dollar terms - to maintain our stake in series A and B," Karthik Reddy, the firm's co-founder and managing director, told The Economic Times. "Also, because fund sizes and valuations have increased. A lot of companies need one booster check, a convert note or a pre-series A round to push them to a successful negotiation of a solid Series A."

Fund I primarily focused on mobile internet, with the rest going to the internet of things (IoT), robotics and cleantech, and to offline consumer plays. There have been 10 exits from the vehicle, including Taxiforsure, Zipdial and Promptec.

Investments made by Blume in 2015 include warehouse robotics developer GreyOrange Robotics and logistics start-up RoadRunnr.

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