Vorwerk Ventures

Early-stage venture firm led by experienced investors with a passion for consumer businesses. Your First Institutional Investor: We invest in exciting consumer businesses (& their enablers) from Seed to Series A. Lead with Conviction: We lead rounds; we don’t borrow conviction from others. Sector Focus: Digital Consumer businesses and their Enablers Ticket Size: 'First cheque' sizes of INR 10-150 million Subsequent Rounds: We have reserved significant capital for follow on investment in our portfolio companies Partner of Choice: We’ve been helping founders build businesses through good times and bad for two decades The Story behind the People We have 30+ years of cumulative experience managing third-party capital Partners in several consumer journeys at multiple stages across categories. We have professionally and personally invested across 20+ consumer businesses from seed stage to growth. We believe in marrying rigor with agility and are deeply engaged in value creation with our founders. We are looking to play the long game with people willing to play the long game. PRATH is a labor of love for us to translate our passion for consumer investing into an institution, that we hope, will far outlive and outshine us.

Our approach keeps founders at the heart of everything we do. We areConviction-led: We value independent decision-making and lead all our investments. Long-term partners: We stay fully committed to founders' vision, no matter how long it takes. Sector specialists: We each focus on specific sectors to build a deep, informed point of view that fuels our investment strategy and portfolio support. Transparent: We keep founders in the loop and prioritize honest communication, making us partners they never have to second-guess. Engaged: We believe in staying actively involved through meaningful board participation and functional support. Our journey started like many other startups – in a Bengaluru basement 2016 When we set out to raise our first fund, the Indian VC landscape was shaky at best. Investors were cautious, several foreign VC majors had left the ecosystem, and successful exits were hard to come by. Amidst skepticism about the Indian market, we defiantly believed that the "golden decade" of Indian technology was upon us. We saw an opportunity for VC 2.0 in India – one that was stage-focused, expertise-driven, and committed to prioritizing real growth alongside valuations. Undeterred by a tough fundraising climate, we knocked on 1,200 doors to raise Stellaris’ first fund. These early struggles shaped Stellaris’ culture, allowing us to fully resonate with the fundraising challenges faced by early-stage entrepreneurs. 2017 We launched our first fund of $90 million. From the outset, we established a principle of having specialists on our team, enabling us to tap into deep sector knowledge, spot promising opportunities, and provide tailored support to the companies we backed. Out of our 19 investments in our first fund, 9 surpassed a valuation of $100 million, with several others on track to achieve this milestone. 2021 We closed our second fund of $225M and backed 25 companies, many of which are poised to become the leaders of tomorrow. We also had our first significant exit in the portfolio when 6Sense, a US SaaS company, acquired Slintel, in which Stellaris was the first institutional investor. 2023 Our portfolio company, Mamaearth, which we backed at the Series A stage in 2018, successfully completed its IPO. 2024 We launched our third fund of $300M and are now managing over $600M in assets. We're ready to support the next wave of innovative businesses with the same grit and determination that brought us here.

Bold. Brave. Brilliant. Brazen. The founders we back are all this, and more. They are unreasonable, they are crazy ambitious, obsessed with solving hard, gnarly problems. Problems whose solutions transform lives and impact society. And, it takes a revolutionary founder, and a transformational company to solve these problems, and effect change. We back these transformational companies, and their revolutionary founders early, and remain lifelong partners. How does Blume evaluate early stage startups? In our framework, we look at three criteria to evaluate startups – size of market or opportunity, team quality and finally, investability or probability of the next round of capital. Our approximate weightage for Opportunity : Team : Investability is 40 : 40 : 20. Let us double click on these three criteria. Market size or opportunity: Pick too small a market and even the best team can’t build a large scalable business. The best founders know how to reshape a market opportunity and build solutions to fit the largest of the market opportunities. That said, one has to begin with the aggregate opportunity being very large. For example, are Ola and Uber a ride hailing app or a large scale urban transportation business? The market size expands 5-10x when the latter is applied. At Blume, we try to find a portfolio balance between founders who can chase a large market opportunity domestically or build a tech-led differentiated product for global markets (which increase Founding teams: These are the most important variables for us or even most VCs at our stage. In every decision, once the other two factors are seen as a go, the clincher element in a yes/no decision boils down to the founding team – their expertise in solving for this space, as well as the integrity, mission, passion and persistence that one can gauge at this early stage of business. Investability or probability of next rounds of capital: The reality of how the later stage funding market is shaped to take risky bets in the ecosystem is important to consider while funding, especially in young and concentrated ecosystems like India, and that’s why we attribute 20% weightage to this element in India. We force ourselves to evaluate how much capital may be required to build to exitable scale and how challenging it is to raise that capital. As the funding ecosystem matures, we may shrink weightage of this in the future. Great founders overcome all of this but if we can select such that we have better odds at the starting point, why not? The above framework helps us shortlist but finally, it is a (increasingly improving) trained gut call that ends up building out the portfolio. What is Blume's investment criteria? Blume prefers ventures that have achieved some degree of customer validation, where the product is already launched in market and we are getting customer signups and feedback. We do make exceptions on the above for seasoned operators and second-time founders, but typically with first-time founders, we do not do idea stage or pre-MVP investments. If you are a B2B startup or an ecommerce / consumer transaction play, an annualised revenue rate (or revenues) of $375k (₹3cr) and above is a good milestone to reach out to us. If you are a marketplace startup, then reach out to us when you are nearing or have crossed a monthly GMV of ₹50 lacs a month. If you are a consumer app that isn't monetising yet, then ping us when you near or cross MAUs of 25k / DAUs of 5k. The above are broad guidelines, and not hard rules. We do make exceptions. If in doubt, reach out! How much does Blume invest? We are a seed / pre-Series A fund. While we are fairly flexible on the investment quantum, typically we have seen our investments range across from $1.5 to $3m (₹12 to 24 crs). We do optimise however for a stake of anywhere from 12 to 20%. These stake requirements reflect the depth and extent of support we provide to the startup – from fundraising and hiring to business development etc. We also anticipate the rounds of dilution that every successful startup will undergo, and the desired holding that we need to hold at the point of exit. Does Blume invest in international startups? We invest in startups that are Indian at heart or origin, but are willing to conquer the world market if needed to build scale. About a third of our portfolio is of this nature – taking Indian engineering skills to build products for global markets. Unfortunately, We DO NOT invest in startups that are international and have NO strong Indian connection / founders. We are also strong believers that to invest as a ‘generalist tech VC’ as we are, we need to be more and more focussed on a particular geography. We need to see as much of the available annual pipeline to know that we’ve truly picked 10 great founders / startups to invest in. We have no such advantage when we are looking outside the country; which is why we stay away from the temptation of looking at pipeline from international markets. What kind of sectors does Blume invest in? With our new Fund, our fourth since inception, we are looking to invest about 60-65% of the new fund in domestic-heavy sectors such as healthcare, financial services, commerce and brands, jobs and education, and digital media and gaming. The other 35-40% of the fund will focus on SaaS, and DeepTech (including CleanTech, manufacturing, blockchain) companies, typically in B2B, that can innovate and engineer with local talent pools, and yet scale globally. Does Blume have a preference between B2B and B2C? We like both. India is a consumer market that is poised to explode, as people move to the digital economy to spend an increasingly larger share of their wallet’s purchasing power. That makes it attractive to build a strong consumer proposition in India. And thus our B2C portfolio. We are also now very good at taking our science and engineering skills in software and other areas, and building commercial applications at scale, often for the global market. These constitute the majority of B2B ideas in our portfolio and we like this space a lot. Where do I send my pitch? How do I reach out to Blume? We get anywhere between 4,000 to 5,000 ideas pitched to us annually, across the team, across all formats. This includes referrals, cold mails, DMs on social channels etc. We have given up counting :) We invest in about 10-12 of these per year. As Blume has grown, we've looked at the empirical data and discovered that the vast majority of our investments were referrals from our contacts in the ecosystem. You can count the exceptions to this rule with one hand in every cycle, and still have a few fingers to spare! These referrals come from our own founders we have backed, other founders who know that we will do right by their angel investments and our extensive set of friends, investors and well wishers in the ecosystem. The exceptions, while not impossible, are indeed rare. Ceteris paribus (all things considered), you are better off reaching us through a trusted common friend. In a highly networked startup ecosystem, it is not that hard to reach us through the strongest possible mutual connection. But if that is not possible, do reach out to us cold. Your email will certainly be read, even if it is not always responded to. We have ensured that our internal systems catch every pitch - cold or warm or hot. When writing in cold, a considered and researched mail (much like a quality college application) is the only way to attempt such a reach out. Please check out the team page, find the best person in the Investment team who has invested in and / or covers the sector you're building in. Do check out their social profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter) to access their contact info. Our email ids are not hard to guess as well! Preferably write to one person at a time, in the firm. The above are good principles for you irrespective of which firm you approach / pitch to. Nothing works better than a warm, referred introduction - it always gets the rightful attention. Please note that we have done away with a pitch form, or a common email id. From our experience, we found that the volume of inbound traffic was indeed high, but not always relevant, and thus almost impossible to assign a resource to just monitor these inbound gates.

Trind Ventures is a seed-stage venture fund focusing on startups with a consumer or community component. We are headquartered in Tallinn with team members also in Helsinki and Munich. Where we investPrimarily Northern and Central Europe Tech innovations benefiting end users Community driven inbound business models Hardworking teams who have attracted their first happy customers Companies with a long-term path to a defensible competitive position How we can helpWe start from the seed round, initially committing €0.1-0.5 million We could lead a seed round or be a syndicate member with business angels and other investors We are focused investors, and only invest in up to 8 companies per year We help to lengthen the runway, with a focus on financial sustainability, not on constant fundraising We follow-on, investing up to €3 million per company Investments The entrepreneurs we have partnered with over the last 20 years are hardworking and extremely smart. But even then they needed more time and resources to make an impact. With our support, they have increased their time horizons, allowing them to sustain their businesses. We have been humbled by some of the outstanding exits our partner entrepreneurs have provided us. Nevertheless, we think that some of the most valuable lessons come from our failures; we are excited to share our experience with new teams.

Drawing its name from the Italian word for 'Mongoose', Mangusta embodies the spirit of a tactical hunter - swift, precise, and unrelenting in its pursuit of the extraordinary. We seek to build a community that harnesses intellect and the ambition to change the world. Mangusta is a venture capital and growth equity firm, with its origins in Italy and a global reach. Our mission is to shape the world for future generations by supporting technology innovations that move humanity forward. We invest in audacious founders building mission-critical capabilities across AI and software. As we reach the tipping point in the advent of AGI, we see the inevitability of unlocking massive productivity gains in complex workflows across all industries. We invest in the next generation of great consumer brands and technologies enabling delightful consumer experiences. In the past, consumers trusted brands; today, consumers trust influencers. We search for the trendsetters changing the way we eat, play, and live. Our Team Our people are our greatest assets. Our team has worked together for over a decade, building products and leading global investment firms. Our team has launched generational products with iconic brands across the globe, generating billions in revenues and building many unicorns in the process. We’re not simply investors but true partners to our founders. While others are cheerleaders in the boardroom, we love the thrill of being in the trenches – brainstorming strategy and tapping into our global network of investors and operators to drive real results.

Tengelmann Ventures is an early-stage Venture Capital firm focused on empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs on their mission to (i) preserve life and environment, (ii) simplify everyday life and (iii) individualize products and services to changing needs. Founded in 2009, Tengelmann Ventures invests primarily in consumer-centric B2C and B2B businesses within the DACH region. TENGELMANN STANDS FORCONSUMER KNOWLEDGE: Decades of experience in dealing with consumers. SUSTAINABILITY HERITAGE: Taking responsibility for sustainability: a track-record in addressing sustainability matters from early days. ENTREPRENEURIAL DNA: An entrepreneurial platform providing freedom and patience – dedicated to long-term growth. EXTENSIVE NETWORK: An extensive high-caliber network of entrepreneurs, advisors and leaders, particularly in Europe and North America. PATIENT CAPITAL: A family business thinking in generations and therefore long-term orientation. ACTIVE INVESTOR: The aspiration to act as an active entrepreneurial partner.