In Full Blume: Funding galore, new business milestones, and a community that rocks
Updates from the Blume team and portfolio companies
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the last month was super busy for Blumiers. There’s been a rush of activity--funding, lots of well-deserved recognition, tons of press coverage, and whatnot!
In between all this, they’ve managed to put their heads down and do what matters the most--execution.
All we have to say is, ‘I’m feelin’ Good.’ (We can hear Michael Bublé’s song in the background.)
Here’s what’s in store for you:
Funding updates from IDfy, Ultrahuman, IntrCity, Yulu, Interview Kickstart, Optimo Loan, and Manufactured.
‘Big’ business announcements from Stage, Ethereal Machines, LambdaTest, Euler Motors, and others.
Update from our community team on the quarter gone by.
Read on!
Funding, Funding, and more Funding
IDfy lands $27 million in a new round
Elev8 Venture Partners, backed by South Korea's KB Investment, has led a $27 million round for IDfy (Blume Fund I), an identity verification services provider. KB Investment and Tenacity Ventures also participated in the round.
"IDfy’s mission is to eliminate fraud and establish trust. The funds will fuel our expansion plans and product development, enabling us to serve even more businesses and unlock opportunities for trustworthy people and businesses," said Ashok Hariharan, co-founder and CEO of IDfy.
IDfy provides customer background and verification services, video KYC, and merchant onboarding services. It covers a wide range of checks, including work experience, education records, and legal history, to ensure a person's suitability for a specific job or task.
IDfy currently serves over 1,500 clients in diverse sectors, such as BFSI, FMCG, e-commerce, gaming, and others.
You can read more here.
IntrCity closes ₹37 crore in Series C round
IntrCity (Blume Fund I), an inter-city mobility platform, has raised ₹37 crore in a Series C round led by Mirabilis Investment Trust. Existing investors, Nandan Nilekani’s family trust (NRJN), Omidyar Network India, and US-based Ujamaa Ventures, also participated in the round.
“In FY23, we experienced solid growth, with our business turning profitable. As we step into FY24, we aim to keep this momentum going, backed by the incredible support of our investors. We are now the top inter-city mobility brand in the country,” said Manish Rathi, CEO and co-founder of IntrCity.
Here’s to conquering more roads!
Ultrahuman does ultrahuman things, as usual
Wearable tech startup Ultrahuman (Blume Fund III) has raised $35 million in a mix of debt and equity in its Series B round. Blume Ventures, Steadview Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Alpha Wave Incubation, and Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal participated in the round.
"Our long-term investment in R&D and intellectual property is a cornerstone of our strategy, ensuring that our products not only meet but exceed the highest standards of efficacy and reliability," said Mohit Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Ultrahuman.
Founded in 2019 by Mohit Kumar and Vatsal Singhal, Ultrahuman sells health-tracking wearable devices and services. The company’s portfolio includes a smart ring called Ring Air, the Ultrahuman product suite consists of a continuous glucose monitoring wearable called M1 Live, a home health device called Ultrahuman Home, and a preventive blood testing product called Blood Vision
We recently wrote a deep dive about Mohit and Vatsal’s journey at Ultrahuman that started on the beaches of Thailand. Find out more here.
Yulu speeds ahead with a new fundraise
Electric mobility startup Yulu (Blume Fund II) raised $19.25 million in equity funding from existing investors Magna and Bajaj Auto Ltd.
The fresh capital will enable Yulu to maintain its growth streak and strengthen its market leadership as it expands its vehicle fleet, operational locations, and product and technology innovation.
“Yulu has seen demand speeding up in the last couple of quarters. In particular, our shared EV services have transformed the urban delivery landscape by increasing the share of green deliveries while enabling livelihoods and providing a superior customer experience," said Amit Gupta, CEO of Yulu.
Yulu is also strengthening the mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) segment by deepening existing business lines and expanding into new use cases and geographical areas.
Manufactured ramps up with Series A capital raise
Manufactured (Blume Fund II), an end-to-end manufacturing platform, has raised its Series A from Positive Sum, MS&AD Ventures, and Triplepoint Capital.
In a unique fund-raise announcement, the founder Pranay tweeted that the company “forgot to announce the round” because it was busy being awesome and useful to its customers.
We don’t want to spill it all here, so why don’t you read their delightfully crafted blog to find out why they forgot to tell the world about their fundraise.
Blume ‘Kickstarts’ this startup’s journey with its biggest maiden cheque
We cut our largest maiden cheque of $10 million to fund software and artificial intelligence-linked technology education platform Interview Kickstart.
US-based Interview Kickstart is a platform for working technology professionals who want to prepare to work at top tech companies. Over 20,000 people have gone through its programs spanning AI, Machine Learning, Data Science, and other advanced engineering and product areas.
Professionals who take Interview Kickstart’s courses, have received job offers that exceed $250,000 annual salary package on average, with some earning as high as $1.2 million, co-founder and CEO Ryan Valles told The Economic Times.
Optimo Loan secures $10 million seed funding
MSME lending startup Optimo Loan has raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by Blume and Omnivore.
Founded by Prashant Pitti, who is also the co-founder of publicly-listed travel portal EaseMyTrip, Optimo is an MSME lending tech business for rural India. It combines technology and a phygital distribution model to offer quick finance options.
The company plans to use the funds to expand its operations and presence to 20 locations in rural India, enhance technology, and recruit talent by the end of the year.
"Our top management team comprises individuals with extensive experience of 10-15 years in MSME lending. We aim to establish an asset-light company by primarily leveraging co-lending agreements with banks and larger NBFCs," said Prashant.
Awards, Recognition, and Business Milestones
The Stage is all set for a million and counting
Regional OTT platform Stage, a Blume Fund IV company, now has 1 million+ paying subscribers. All it took was 2 years, 11 months, and 7 days!
Now, that’s an achievement worth etching in stone!
It just seems like yesterday that we announced in this newsletter that the company had added 100,000+ customers in just one month in January 2024. Within two short months, Stage has hit another stellar milestone!
Time does fly when the Stage is abuzz with action!
Sprinto dashes into pole position at SaaSboomi
In the recently concluded annual SaaS conference SaaSboomi, Sprinto, a Blume fund III company that is a one-stop platform for security compliances and certification audits, bagged the runner-up titles for both Devtools/Infra Startup of the Year Award and Breakout Startup of the Year.
“This wouldn't have been possible without the unwavering support from our incredible customers and partners. A special thank you for believing in us and propelling us towards excellence!” said Girish Redekar, CEO of Sprinto, on X.
LambdaTest scales the G2 summit
This is what true customer love looks like. Leading cloud-based unified testing platform LambdaTest, a Blume Fund III company, has been voted #1 among the top 20 software testing tools globally on G2. The startup scores above 9 on almost all parameters.
“Nothing can beat customer love! Huge congratulations to our team @lambdatesting for their hard work and dedication. Every minute of their effort is highly appreciated and I am truly fortunate to work with such an amazing team,” said Asad Khan, CEO of LambdaTest, on X.
Cutting-edge manufacturing for a cutting-edge startup
Manufacturing startup Ethereal Machines, a Blume Fund III company, recently opened a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Bengaluru. The company’s multi-axis CNC (Computer Numerical Control) are at the forefront of precision manufacturing.
This isn’t just a ‘small step’; it is rather' a giant leap’, as it sits squarely in the era of self-reliance and global competitiveness for India’s manufacturing sector.
“India's Industrial Revolution ignites today with the inauguration of @etherealmachine's cutting-edge mfg facility in Blr. Our multi-axis CNC machines redefine precision, paving the way for self-reliance and global competitiveness. Join us as we shape the future of manufacturing!” said Kaushik Mudda, CEO, of Ethereal Machines on X.
The all-new Euler’s “second” law
Euler Motors (Blume Fund III), an electric vehicle company, emerged as the #2 player in the three-wheeler electric cargo category in February. And it is much ahead of well-established brands and behemoths.
Just a few weeks before, the company inked a partnership with Magenta Mobility to place a new order for 2,000 HiLoad EVs.
Euler is certainly setting some new ‘green’ records. Here’s wishing them more success!
Healthify 🤝OpenAI- Saving lives together!
“Risk-adjusted, partnering with OpenAI, we probably would have saved a million lives before the end of this year," says Tushar Vashisht, CEO of Healthify, in this case study by OpenAI.
The case study digs deep into how Healthify, a Blume Fund II company, uses OpenAI’s API to simplify tracking and scale up coaching. The blog talks about how Ria, the world's first AI-powered virtual nutritionist, Coach Co-pilot, and Snap, a revolutionary feature designed to simplify calorie counting through photo recognition of food, were able to perform and scale faster and better with OpenAI.
It may be a good time to note that Healthify has helped users lose 25 million+ pounds.
This is as cutting-edge as possible and sets a new standard for innovation in the health technology sector.
Community corner
Blume has been abuzz with insightful Learning and Development (L&D) sessions and engaging meetups in the first quarter of 2024.
We've held many events, such as roundtable talks, webinars, and workshops, in collaboration with groups like MagicBall AI and The Product Folks, and also one-on-one learning sessions pairing our portfolio company founders with industry experts. Some of the mentors in the 1:1 mentoring sessions for our portfolio companies include Nitin Agarwal (formerly of Purplle and Upscal.io) and Rahul Jain (Co-founder at Pendo).
Our community activities included a mix of events, like a networking event called 'Backyard Boardroom - Founder's Mixer' with The Product Folks, and roadshows with Stripe in Bangalore and Gurgaon. Other key activities were a special meeting for CTOs with Andreas Klinger, the former CTO of ProductHunt, an XR Meetup in Bangalore, a knowledge session to educate our portfolio companies about the recent DPDP act, and an L&D session for emerging fund managers.
Through all these activities, Blume is nurturing a vibrant community that believes in collaboration and paying it forward.