Mela Ventures is a Bengaluru-based early-stage venture firm founded in 2020 by Mindtree co-founders Krishnakumar Natarajan and Parthasarathy NS, both Managing Partners. After two decades of building Mindtree from a startup into a multi-billion-dollar IT services leader, the pair stepped across to the investor's side of the table, as the firm's own site puts it, to help the next generation of entrepreneurs build world-class B2B technology companies out of India.
Mela focuses exclusively on the enterprise segment and on founders building category-defining products for global markets. The fund is a SEBI-approved Category-II AIF, MV Core Tech Fund - I, targeting a corpus of Rs 200 crore including a Rs 75 crore greenshoe. Its first close of Rs 130 crore was announced in August 2020, backed by institutional investors, global technology leaders and seasoned startup investors, with the Economic Times reporting that four Mindtree founders committed their own money.
Investment thesis and focus
Mela backs early-stage companies using cutting-edge technologies to build B2B solutions targeted at global enterprises. Its stated sectors are artificial intelligence, machine learning, AR/VR, internet of things, cloud migration and deep technologies; recent company communications position the firm across DeepTech, EnterpriseTech and ClimateTech.
The firm's pitch is operator depth rather than just capital: helping founders navigate the US and European enterprise market, the 'playbook for selling to the CIO', and access to a network built over the founders' decades in enterprise IT. Natarajan told Mint that Mela deliberately limits itself to Indian investors so the capital stays within the country and supports India's growth story, as reported by KrASIA.
Fund and stage
Mela writes early-stage cheques of Rs 7-10 crore (roughly $1 million) per company and aims to build a portfolio of around 10-15 companies, committing to stay long-term in its investments. It targets 4-5 investments every 18 months. The firm's portfolio now spans roughly 15 companies, per IndianVcs' January 2026 tracker, and Mela is among the funds that applied for the Government of India's Rs 1 lakh crore RDI (Research, Development and Innovation) fund of funds, as reported by the Economic Times in early 2026.
Portfolio highlights
Mela's key portfolio companies include GalaxEye (space-based imaging), Mindgrove (chips/semiconductors), Vunet (enterprise observability) and Indra. The firm also backed Solinas Integrity, the IIT Madras-incubated deep-tech startup building robotics and AI for underground water infrastructure, in its $5.5 million Series A1 round in August 2026, alongside Hero Enterprise Partner Ventures. Earlier investments include customer data platform FirstHive and experiential learning platform KNOLSKAPE.
People and programs
The firm is led by managing partners Krishnakumar Natarajan and Parthasarathy NS, with Nisha Shah listed in fundraising coverage as a key team member. Beyond the cheque, Mela positions its Mindtree-founder network in the US and Europe as its core founder perk, helping portfolio companies land enterprise customers and scale globally.
Why it matters for founders
Early-stage B2B and deep-tech founders selling to global enterprises should look at Mela Ventures. Its founders have personally built and scaled one of India's great IT services companies, and the fund's stated goal is to transfer that enterprise go-to-market muscle to its portfolio. Cheques of Rs 7-10 crore sit squarely in the early-stage band, and the firm's growing ClimateTech tilt widens the funnel for robotics, water and sustainability startups too.