In Full Blume: Infollion's IPO, Forbes 30u30, and LeadTribe's third edition
Updates from the Blume team and portfolio companies
It’s that time of the month again. Welcome to “In Full Blume,” our monthly roundup of what’s happening with our team and our portfolio.
Let’s give you some hints of what’s in store in this edition:
A Blume portfolio company IPO is on the way.
Look for familiar faces in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, Class of 2023 List.
Keep an eye out for Exotel’s new brand identity.
And lastly, join us in a countdown for a new podcast launch!
A New Chapter in Infollion’s Story
In 2013, aggregating the unorganized market of services offered by individual consultants to businesses, who provide them strategic guidance on market entry, go-to-market, and competitive landscape, was a big opportunity. At that time, backing Infollion Research Services, a tech-oriented marketplace catering to on-demand consultant hiring and work arrangements with senior management talent, presented a fantastic chance for us to organize this market using technology and data and simultaneously back a high-margin business that had high margins.
We’re talking of a time when venture capital was not easy to find in unproven business models. Also, Infollion is a B2B services business that many investors didn’t want to invest in then. But Gaurav Munjal, Infollion’s founder, could see the bigger picture and the endless possibilities that the company could have in its future. It paid off this week when Infollion opened its initial share sale on May 29. It’s worth noting that Infollion’s SME IPO is coming after 13+ years of the company’s existence. The company didn’t just build frugally; more importantly, Munjal put his head down and built it profitably almost throughout the last decade, finding repeat clients in top-tier consulting and PE firms.
A lot has to do with Munjal being at the helm throughout Infollion’s journey even though it wasn’t his first idea. In the last decade, we have seen him lead with an unchallenged vigor, one that turned doubts about a “non-scalable” business into a profitable venture. We at Blume are immensely proud of being the only institution in his journey and feel privileged of playing a role in his success. To mark this momentous occasion, Blume changed its brand colors to Infollion colors for a week, a small gesture of the collective joy we feel when we see Blume portfolio companies thrive.
As we get ready to hit publish, we find that the Infollion public issue has been significantly oversubscribed. The magnitude of demand for a profitable tech company is considerable, and we hope this inspires more Indian tech founders to ready their companies for an IPO.
Funding Spotlight
THB (TECHNOLOGY-HEALTHCARE-BIG DATA Analytics), a healthcare SaaS company, has raised $20 million in funding in a growth equity round led by Filter Capital and Edelweiss Discovery Fund Series-I. Cornerstone Venture Partners Fund (CSVP) and Healthquad, among others, also participated in the round. THB aims to use the funds in expanding its operations globally and accelerating growth in existing countries across South Asia, the Middle East, and South East Asia.
Purplle, the beauty products platform, has raised around $40-$50 million in a fresh round. Purplle has now raised around $450 million from Blume Ventures, Premji Invest, homegrown private equity firm Kedaara Capital, Goldman Sachs, JSW Ventures, and several others, including the latest round. The company will use this capital to expand its offline footprint by opening more stores and strengthening its online presence.
Look At Us Now
An expanded vision, a new logo and a new, catchy tagline. Welcome to the new Exotel and its redesigned brand identity. Exotel, the emerging markets' leading consumer dialogue platform, believes that its new brand positioning communicates its expanded reach and reaffirmed mission in the CX market. The new logo emphasizes the phonetic 'x' in Exotel in six distinct colours. Exotel's logo visuals blend the dynamic 'x' form with a free-flowing design that communicates the company's ideology of continuous connectivity.
Exotel’s daily connected customer conversations have increased to 70+ million for more than 7000 businesses across India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company recently expanded its full-stack offerings to the Indonesian and UAE markets.
On Cloud “30 under 30”
Blumiers had a lot to celebrate last month.
Blume’s Radhika Agarwal made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list this year. At 29, Agarwal is one of the eight female investors on this year’s Forbes 30 under 30 Asia: Finance and Venture Capital list who are helping companies grow to the next level. In 2020, she started Blume Ventures' Lead Tribe, one of India's first VC-led cohort programs for women founders. Agarwal helps with Blume Ventures’ edtech, gaming, media and HR tech investments.
And she’s not alone. Joining her are Blume’s portfolio founders. There’s Parveen Singhal of STAGE, the “Netflix of Bharat,” a streaming service suited to Indian audiences that houses films in dialects like Haryanvi and Rajasthani. Singhal made it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia: Media, Marketing & Advertising list. In the last two years since its inception, Noida-based STAGE has amassed more than 1 million downloads on Google Play and added more than 200,000 paid subscribers.
Also on the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia: Enterprise technology list are Divyaanshu Makkar, Vikas Garg, and Mayur Bhangale, co-founders of Sourcewiz, the Bangalore-based SaaS company that they co-founded in 2021. The startup aims to help digitize manufacturers and exporters in India by providing an easy-to-use software platform to make digital product catalogs, create quotations and invoices with just a few clicks, as well as optimize sales opportunities during trade shows. In the words of Sajith Pai, their unrelenting ambition, married with their intense customer empathy and understanding will take them far.
Take Three
Three years ago, Blume Ventures launched LeadTribe, a space for women rockstar founders to build amazing institutions at the back of a super-charged network through a tightly constructed learning and networking program. In the last two cohorts, we brought together 50+ women founders who are all building path-breaking ventures across Fintech, Enterprise SaaS, Deeptech, Climate-tech, Edtech to name a few. And now, we’re excited to launch Cohort III.
Let’s take you through what’s in store for our cohort this year: For one, our first in-person bootcamp. Our experience of building community & peer networks among founders has taught us that there are little-to-no substitutes for in-person experiences in forging deep bonds. Expect masterclasses and interactive workshops and a lot more fun, in-person this year! Lead Tribe will run from June 6th to July 8th this year and will have a mandatory 2-day bootcamp on the 23rd and 24th of June. Stay tuned for more details on our speaker list & curriculum.
From Blume To The World
Our co-founder Sanjay Nath represented Blume this year at TiEcon, the world's largest technology conference designed by Silicon Valley leaders for entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and investors. Part of the panel titled "From India to the World: Charting the Growth and Exits of Unicorns,” Nath addressed a packed hall and talked about the sea change in the vibrant Indian startup ecosystem and an explosion in high-quality talent that has truly global ambitions and wants to build for the world from India. Joining him on the panel was Anita Rehman, partner at GSV Ventures, Madhu Shalini Iyer of Rocketship Ventures, Galaxy Interactive’s Gaurav Bhogale, Asha Jadeja Motwani from Motwani Jadeja Foundation and Metablock Capital’s Vishal Gurbaxani.
Kicking Off A New Vision
At the Blume Day 2023 celebrations earlier this year, we celebrated long-term class over short-term form. Or how we believe that venture capital is best exemplified by this one phrase: “Form is temporary but class is permanent.” In the time since, we took that idea and tinkered with it, locating places it could fit and expand. That led us to our soon-to-be-launched property, “The Power of Compounding”. So here’s a countdown and a hint. Is it a podcast or is it a bird? Who do you think we have on our first episode? All we can say is that in the first episode, you will be hearing from the founder of one of India’s largest financial services companies who has built a resilient company for the long term.
P.S.: The image contains a bonus hit. Start guessing away!
