Ideaspring makes first seed investment of Rs 3.5 crore in Karomi

BENGALURU: Early-stage technology fund Ideaspring Capital has made its first seed investment of Rs 3.5 crore in Chennai-based tech startup Karomi, which offers packaging artwork management software product for pharma and FMCG companies.

The funds will be used to help Karomi expand into the US market, said Ideaspring Capital’s MD Naganand Doraswamy. Ideaspring, set up by angel investors Doraswamy and Prashant Deshpande along with Patni Computers’ Arihant Patni last year as a Rs 125-crore fund, is focused on investing in product innovation startups that can also scale globally.

The fund counts Aarin Capital’s Mohandas Pai and Sasken Technologies chairman Rajiv C Mody as general partners and has Patni Computers’ scions Arihant and Amit Patni on its investment committee. The investment in Karomi, which is known by its product brand name ManageArtworks, comes as the firm looks to enter the US and target small business there.