The worriesWhat do you lose sleep over?
Sanjay said, “It’s upsetting when a really good startup team flounders or loses its way. And as much as we try, even as investors, there's only so much we can do."
The other thing worrying this VC investor is the challenge of striking a sane balance between life and work. “Being an investor is not for everyone. It’s stressful and not for the faint hearted. You’re travelling nonstop, and you have to keep your ego aside - especially while raising funds. Family and personal time come second.”
Blume’s trajectory Blume's was founded by Karthik Reddy and Sanjay Nath. The mates go back to 2009 when they first met as Mumbai Angels. Their startup stable include consumer success stories like Zopper, Purplle, and TaxiForSure.
Then there are tech startups experimenting with the business viability of emerging technology like GreyOrange Robotics, Unocoin and Tricog. GreyOrange has progressed to a point where they don’t even position themselves as a startup anymore.
These investors are very, very busy, indeed. Ever since launching, Blume has consistently been among the top 5 most active VCs.
Fund I from 2011 - approximately 20 million dollars invested in approximately 60 startups.
Fund II soon available for deployment - about 60 million dollars to back around 40 companies, and for investing in follow-on rounds.
“With early stage startups, we believe in going wide for better returns. As the funnel deepens, a larger fund helps to follow on and continue backing your startups."
Has all that activity paid off?
“We've had a decent record. There is TaxiForSure (to Ola), Zipdial (Twitter's first India acquisition) and Promptec (to Havell's). And there have been about 5 exits via acqui-hires.”
So, no spectacular returns, but definitely enough to keep LPs interested.
The hopesThen Sanjay stops to think for a while and starts.
“But on the other hand, family has come to mean our portfolio of startups and the ecosystem we build. It’s been exciting and keeps me looking forward to each new day.”
His only hope is that everyone gives these startups a chance to prove themselves, before picking them off in jest.
“India would benefit greatly from more startup-friendly policies. Startup India, did put India on the map like never before. But a level playing field for the tax regime, more parity for venture capital investments with public securities is high on our wishlist. We'd like to see Indian corporates interact more with their overseas counterparts, and learn to appreciate the true value (and valuations) of startups.
And he threw this in too.
“We'd also like to see more responsible reporting by the media, more real stories, less of the sensationalized, flavor of the month variety.”
The dreams What is the most exciting part of your job?
"I'm into my 40s, and the most incredible part is working with and learning from entrepreneurs 15-20 years younger than us.”
Sanjay is excited about the future because Blume is getting better at spotting high potentials and turning them into winners.
“Startup management is a nuanced discipline, as much an art as it is a science. Startups don’t fail because the idea is bad, they fail because of poor execution and management. Hopefully we feel our practised gut of picking good entrepreneurs is improving YoY.
India's tech exits need to be greater both in size and frequency. We're getting there, with every year it’s looking likelier.
The gloom and dust of 2015 and ‘16, it turns out, yielded some positives. Ecommerce is set for a makeover. We are done with ‘me too’ business models. And only the very committed are becoming entrepreneurs. We also saw edtech and healthcare become ripe with opportunity. But the biggest disruptor was fintech - it remains one of the most exciting, yet competitive sectors.”
If you were wondering, this VC investor doesn’t lose too much sleep about returns on investing, at least not today, he doesn’t.
“We're in a marathon not a sprint, and the next decade will be all about realizing outcomes from the bets made since the 2000s.”
The best is yet to come.
BW Reporters
Regina is a reporter for BW Businessworld. In her previous assignments, she has worked with Independent television Network as a news anchor and reporter in Sri Lanka
