Karthik B. Reddy is the Managing Partner at Blume Venture Advisors, a position he has held since October 2010. Based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Karthik has been instrumental in building Blume since its inception, focusing on Seed to Pre Series A startups born out of India. Blume Ventures, under Karthik’s leadership, continues to support its best portfolio companies through various growth stages.
EDUCATION
Karthik Reddy pursued his MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship at The Wharton School from September 1999 to May 2001. He actively participated in the Technology Club during his time at Wharton. Prior to that, he completed PGDM in Finance and Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in 1996 and earned a BE (Hons) in Industrial Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, in 1994. His educational journey began at Sishya, Chennai, where he completed his schooling from 1976 to 1990.
CAREER
Blume Ventures operates four primary funds: Fund I (2011-15) with $20 million, Fund II (2015-18) with $60 million, Fund III (2018-21) with $102 million, and Fund IV (2021-22 closing) with $290 million. Additionally, the Opportunity Funds and Secondary Funds (2018-23) amount to approximately US$170 million in Assets Under Management (AUM).
Some of Blume’s notable successes include Unacademy, Spinny, Slice, Purplle, Grey Orange, Turtlemint, dunzo, Carbon Clean, Classplus, Servify, Smallcase, Exotel, Lambdatest, BatterySmart, Pixxel, Jai Kisan, Locus, Koo, Cashify, Healthifyme, IntrCity, among other rising stars. As of December 2023, Karthik actively serves on the boards of Grey Orange, Servify, smallcase, Exotel, and HealthifyMe.
Blume Ventures boasts significant exits, including TaxiforSure (to Ola), Runnr (to Zomato), Agara (to Coinbase), Minjar (to Nutanix), Mettl (to Mercer Consulting), Zipdial (to Twitter), Superset (to Byjus | Great Learning), Promptec (to Havells), Threadsol (to Coates).
Prior to his role at Blume Ventures, Karthik Reddy gained diverse experience in various positions. He served as a Member at Mumbai Angels from July 2008 to March 2014, where he contributed for 5 years and 9 months. Before that, he was the VP, Brand Capital at Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. (The Times of India) from November 2007 to August 2010, working for 2 years and 10 months in Mumbai. His role as SVP, Strategic Planning at Deccan Chronicle Holdings lasted from November 2006 to November 2007, contributing for 1 year and 1 month.
Karthik’s professional journey also includes positions such as VP, Investment Banking at SSKI, VP Technology Services at Instinet, VP at Softalia, and Associate, Technology Investment Banking at ABN AMRO Bank N.V. He held the position of Manager at American Express Bank, Mumbai, from June 1996 to June 1999, contributing for 3 years and 1 month.
