In Full Blume: New Funding for Battery Smart, Ati Motors, Pandemic-Market-Fit, and Our New Podcast
Updates from the Blume team and portfolio companies
It’s nice to have you back here. Welcome to In Full Blume, our monthly roundup of updates from our team and our portfolio.
Let’s see what’s in store in this edition:
New rounds of funding for Battery Smart, Ati Motors, Ethereal Machines, and more
Blume’s Arpit Agarwal decoding deep tech on the Deep Tech Musings podcast.
Edtech and the Pandemic Market Fit problem
And lastly, know all about the shiny, new second season of our podcast!
Funding Spotlight
A Charged Future
Battery Smart, the Delhi-based battery swapping network, raised $33Mn in a pre-Series B funding round from existing investors Blume Ventures and Tiger Global. New investors such as the Ecosystem Integrity Fund and BII (British International Investment) also participated in the round. Founded by IIT Kanpur graduates Pulkit Khurana and Siddharth Sikka, Battery Smart plans to use the funds to expand its geographical presence and customer base to one lakh by 2025. Battery Smart currently has 25,000 customers across Tier I, II, and III cities.
The Robot Revolution
Ati Motors, the Bengaluru-based industrial robotics startup, secured $10.85Mn in a Series A funding round. Led by Silicon Valley-based True Ventures, the round saw participation from new investor Athera Venture Partners along with existing investors Blume Ventures, Exfinity Venture Partners, and MFV Partners. Founded in 2017, Ati Motors uses artificial intelligence, computer vision, and hardware to develop autonomous mobile robots that aid productivity and streamline operations in sectors such as warehousing, logistics, and manufacturing. The company will use the fresh capital to expand into the US, Southeast Asia, and Europe, as well as newer industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, maritime, and injection molding sectors.
Engineered Success
Bengaluru-based engineering hardware startup Ethereal Machines raised $7.3Mn in a funding round that saw participation from Surge, a program for early-stage startups by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India and Southeast Asia), Blume Ventures, and a host of angel investors. The startup plans to use the funds to build factories across India to manufacture essential precision engineering components.
Yes, it’s true: Bengaluru is more than just software. If you need any more proof, read all about Peenya, one of Asia’s largest and oldest industrial areas in the city, which is now home to at least 10-20 startups in the manufacturing space, including Ati Motors and Ethereal Machines.
Verifying the Way Ahead
Bureau, an identity verification platform for businesses, added $4.5 Mn in its Series A round, bringing the total raise to $16.5 Mn. Led by GMO Venture Partners and GMO Payment Gateway, the round also saw the participation of Quona Capital and Commerce Ventures. Founded in 2020, Bureau is headquartered in California, with teams in Dubai and India. Bureau helps companies prevent fraud and keep up with compliances. To date, the company has raised $20.5 Mn.
Blumiers and Shakers
Decoding Deep Tech
Blume’s Arpit Agarwal took his fascination for all things deep tech to the
podcast, speaking with about the evolution of the Indian Deep Tech ecosystem, market acceptance of deep tech solutions in India, the impact of Government initiatives, and technologies with significant growth potential. His thoughts on Blume’s bullish stance on the deep tech space are especially timely, with companies like Ati Motors and Ethereal Machines announcing their new funding rounds. Lots to take away from this chat! Listen to the full episode here.In 2021, EdTech startups confused Pandemic Market Fit with PMF
In Blume’s 2020 Edtech report titled ‘It is EdTech’s Moment,’ we quoted an edtech founder saying, “The ecommerce of India is education” and that India’s Amazon would be an edtech company. We had indeed hit peak edtech then. In the first half of 2022, edtech funding hit $1.87 Bn, a 35% jump YoY. Cut to July 2023, the first half of 2023 saw edtech funding drop dramatically to half the size of the previous year, at just under $900 Mn. Many edtech companies founded in 2020 and 2021, which raised record rounds, are now struggling. Some have shut shop and returned the money to investors. But what went wrong? In this piece, Blume’s Sajith Pai and Karthik Reddy link it back to Product Market Fit (PMF) and how a lot of edtech startups that saw a sharp growth in numbers and customer demand actually had Pandemic Market Fit and not true PMF or Product Market Fit.
C for Climate Tech
After organizing the Blume Investors Summit in Mumbai and Bengaluru, we kicked off a series of Blume Climate Tech mixers to bring together key stakeholders in this fast-growing sector for networking, learning, and exploring synergies. Last month, we organized the first Climate Tech mixer in Bengaluru, which was attended by 80+ climate tech founders, investors, corporate, and policymakers. Blume has taken bold bets in the climate tech space even before climate tech was a term. This includes Carbon Clean for decarbonizing the environment, supporting circular economy companies like Cashify and Spinny, or learning and building deep expertise in Electric Mobility. In the same way, these mixers help us continue to take the lead in helping our planet fight climate change.
Purpose Matters
Blume team members
, Radhika Agarwal and Nachammai Savithiri represented Blume at this year’s People Matter’s #TechHR, Asia’s largest confluence of startups, VCs, investors, & work tech enthusiasts. On the agenda were interactions with HRTech startups at the event, as well as sharing the early draft of the upcoming HRTech thesis with senior HR practitioners and getting their takes. In addition, Sajith Pai joined a panel discussion on a seemingly deceptively simple but wicked question: Can startups prioritize impact without sacrificing returns? As per Sajith Pai, it is indeed possible as long as startups find a way to bake their “purpose” into their “product.” Joining him on the panel were Amit Malik from WadzPay and LetsVenture’s Nakul Saxena.Help Us Help You
We have been building something interesting at Blume. With a population of ~145 million, elders are an increasingly important consumer demographic in India — especially considering that this cohort is getting richer every year. We’re putting all our observations into a WIP eldercare thesis and are looking to speak with consumers (both elders and their caregivers) as well as founders to understand this space better. If you are a founder building in the Eldercare space or have perspectives to share, we would love to invite you to share your insights. Get in touch with us today!
New Beginnings: The Power of Compounding with Peyush Bansal
By now, the cat is out of the bag. Yep, we’re back with a new season of our podcast! We’re calling it “The Power of Compounding,” themed around the tiny steps (and missteps) that all add up to the compounding flywheel to get founders to the finish line. Put simply, this is how entrepreneurship often looks like. We know what you’re thinking. So whom can you expect in the episodes? Entrepreneurs who have been at it for decades and those who stayed with an idea for years before actual returns started coming in. Who better to kick off things than the inimitable Peeyush Bansal, founder and CEO of Lenskart, India’s leading eyewear brand.
Obviously, Lenskart needs no introduction. The company boasts millions of users and 1000+ retail stores, making it one of the most prominent D2C brands to come up in the last decade. When Peyush decided to set out on his own, he came across this troubling stat: India is the blind capital of the world, and 75% of people in India who need specs are not wearing them. Unbelievable, isn’t it? Here, Peyush had found his market. The marathon had begun.
In this first episode, Peyush Bansal talks to Karthik B. Reddy, co-founder and managing partner of Blume Ventures about the importance of hiring the right people in building long-lasting businesses, the pathological obsession of founders to solve a particular problem, which is essential in India’s small market, and balancing short-term objectives with long-term goals. Don’t miss out on this illuminating conversation!