Mela Ventures raises ₹130 crore as first close of maiden fund

Mela Ventures, started by highly successful entrepreneurs, today announced the first closing of its maiden fund MV Core Tech Fund – I.

The SEBI-approved Category-2 AIF fund for early stage companies, which targets a ₹200-crore fund size has already garnered ₹130 crore in commitment from a coveted set of investors to mark its first close. Four to five investments are targeted in the next 18 months with a ticket size of ₹7-10 crore each.

The fund is backed by institutional investors, global technology leaders and seasoned start up 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.”

Parthasarathy NS, 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, start-up community and building Indian entrepreneurs. We look forward to this new and exciting journey.”

With a goal to build next-generation entrepreneurs, the fund will focus on building a portfolio in areas, such as AI/ML, AR/VR, IoT, Cloud Migration and Deep Technologies. Mela Ventures was founded by industry veterans, Krishnakumar Natarajan and Parthasarathy NS who have co-founded Mindtree and taken it from a start-up to a multi-billion-dollar market cap enterprise.