Mindtree co-founders’ Mela Ventures to invest in early-stage startups
Published on 25th August, 2020 | 1 min read
Early stage startup fund Mela Ventures, started by Mindtree Ltd co-founders Krishnakumar Natarajan and Parthasarathy NS, has done a first close of its maiden fund ‘MV Core Tech Fund – I’ with ₹130 crore in commitment from a set of Indian investors. The Sebi-approved ‘Category-2 AIF fund’ for early stage companies targets a fund size of ₹200 crore. The announcement comes a year after Natarajan and Parthasarathy, now managing partners with Mela Ventures, left Mindtree post acquisition by business conglomerate Larsen & Toubro Ltd in June last year. Other India-based Mindtree cofounders – Subroto Bagchi, Rostow Ravanan, Janakiraman Srinivasan, and Kalyan Banerjee – are also part of Mela Ventures in the form of investors. The founders believe their experience in building Mindtree to a billion-dollar company from a VC-funded startup will be a valuable asset to the entrepreneurs. Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani invests in startups through VC fund Fundamentum while Kris Gopalakrishnan and SD Shibulal have launched Axilor Ventures focussed on early-stage startups. TV Mohandas Pai, former Infosys board member invests in technology startups through VC fund Aarin Capital.
