Mudhal VC to Back Over 20 Tamil Nadu Startups With Rs 25 Crore Fund
Chennai-based Mudhal VC has announced plans to back more than 20 idea-stage and early-stage startups across Tamil Nadu over the next three years. The investment vehicle has allocated Rs 25 crore in personal capital to fund these homegrown enterprises, with five startup deals expected to close in the near term.
The initiative functions as both a family office and a Y Combinator-style startup program designed to nurture regional ventures, including direct-to-consumer (D2C) startups. It operates as the family office of Suresh Sambandam, the founder and chief executive officer of software enterprise Kissflow, and is led by his son, Managing Partner Aravind Suresh.
Organisers stated that the venture is specifically structured to bridge the critical early-stage startup funding gap in Tamil Nadu. By combining structured mentorship with direct financial backing, the program seeks to provide foundational risk capital to budding founders within the state at their earliest stages of development.
According to Managing Partner Aravind Suresh, Mudhal VC has already invested in 14 companies. When deploying capital, the initiative maintains an average ticket size ranging between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 50 lakh, while extending allocations of up to Rs 1 crore for select startups.
The primary objective of the program is to supply entrepreneurs with initial risk capital so they can find their initial markets and scale their business operations effectively. This initial foundation is intended to position the young companies to successfully raise capital from external venture capital firms and outside investors at subsequent stages.
For enterprises that require larger injections of funds to expand, Mudhal VC also works to facilitate follow-on funding rounds. The vehicle achieves this by actively roping in other external venture capital firms to participate as co-investors alongside the family office.
Addressing the funding structure, Aravind Suresh explained that the firm relies on proprietary capital rather than outside institutional investors. “Currently it is operated as a family office using personal capital to avoid exposing limited partners to early risk,” Suresh noted. He added that the team is considering a possible Rs 100 crore raise at a later stage to further expand its investments.
