Looking for funding? Here are the 10 most active investors in India

The Blume Ventures team. Photo credit: Blume Ventures.

India is on track for a record level of funding this year. It comes after a steep fall in 2016 as the market went into correction mode from the 2015 boom. But even in the midst of the trough in 2016, deal activity saw no letup, with 965 deals in all in 2016, compared to 881 in 2015. The squeeze came in the series A and later stages, while early stage deals continued to be made as investors bet on the long-term potential of the Indian market.

See: After steep fall in 2016, India is on track for record funding level this year

Not surprisingly, early stage investors are among the most active in India, shows new data from venture capital analytics firm CB Insights. Mumbai-based Blume Ventures heads the pack, with 76 investments from the start of 2012 to June 20, 2017. Blume is followed by the Indian Angel Network for this period. Global VC firms Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners are tied at third place with their India-focused funds.

Here’s a rundown of the top 10 most active investors in India, and where they’ve been putting their money:

Blume Ventures

This is one of the first homegrown VC firms in India, founded in 2010 by Karthik Reddy and Sanjay Nath who had both had stints in the US before returning home and becoming investors. Apart from funding, they are passionate about investing their time into mentoring startups and leveraging their global network of corporate and investor connections. A Blume Ventures entourage of investors and founders recently went on a tour of China’s tech hubs on a mission of learning and partnering.

See: Alibaba and the 40 founders from India

Blume’s biggest bet was participating in a US$30 million series B funding of GreyOrange, an outlier that has won major clients in India and abroad for its warehouse robots. TaxiForSure, acquired by Indian ride-hailing app Ola, IoT-based energy saver Zenatix, and Indian bitcoin company Unocoin are among its early bets into 76 startups over the past five years.

Indian Angel Network

This is the country’s oldest network of angel investors, having started in 2006 at a nascent stage for the startup ecosystem. It has been spreading its wings of late into new lands, the latest being a base in Tel Aviv to invest in Israeli startups.

CB Insights data shows 64 investments by the Indian Angel Network since 2012. Hi-tech ventures like Unbxd, which uses cloud-based artificial intelligence for product discovery in ecommerce, speech recognition software maker Uniphore, and logistics analytics company LogiNext are among its promising bets. It has also had a few flameouts, the biggest of them being the shutdown of homestay portal Stayzilla.

See: 25 failed startups in India and what you can learn from them

Sequoia Capital India