From Persistence to Power: Inside Blume Ventures with Arpit Agarwal

What we talked about.

In this conversation, Sunny Ray sits down with Arpit Agarwal of Blume Ventures to trace his journey from co-founding Headstart Network, a nonprofit supporting Indian entrepreneurs, to becoming an early-stage investor. Arpit recounts joining Blume Ventures in 2014, how the firm grew from a small fund of about 15 million dollars into a 100 million dollar plus institution with a 125 person ecosystem across finance, HR, and legal support arms. He reflects candidly on lessons learned from giving entrepreneurs harsh advice, and explains what separates great investors, namely the ability to spot ambition and personal reinvention before trends take off. The discussion turns personal as Arpit shares his own first encounter with bitcoin back in 2010, his initial skepticism, and how meeting the Unocoin founders reframed crypto as a technology opportunity rather than a fintech play. He praises the Unocoin team's 18 month legal battle against India's RBI ban as one of the most inspiring entrepreneurial stories he has witnessed, underscoring themes of persistence, authenticity, and belief in founders during uncertain times.

Blume Ventures investor Arpit Agarwal on spotting founder ambition early and why Unocoin's fight against India's RBI ban still inspires him.

The questions, and the answers.

Where did we first meet, do you recall?

I think it was in Mumbai, at a Starbucks inside Phoenix Mall. I remember Satwik and Harish were there too, and I asked why you were in the city. You said you had come to pitch to an investor at Mumbai Angels.

Can you share a bit of your backstory before we all met?

I cut my professional teeth at Headstart Network, a nonprofit promoting startups that a group of us founded in a Bangalore restaurant around 2007 after doing BarCamps. Thirteen years later it operates in more than 25 cities with over 250 volunteers. That is where I found my calling for working with entrepreneurs.

What did Blume's team and genesis look like when you joined?

Karthik and Sanjay Nath met at Mumbai Angels around 2009 and realized early-stage startups struggled to find capital beyond angel money. Blume's first fund was only about 15 million dollars, run by a team of five or six people. Fund three has grown to over 100 million dollars, with our ecosystem now spanning 125 people across three cities.

How do you approach evaluating opportunities at such an early stage?

There isn't much science to it, most fundamentals like market size and defensibility can be taught in a few hours. What separates great investors is spotting the spark before trends take off. For us, the level of ambition matters most, whether a founder is willing to reinvent herself repeatedly through massive growth, like Unacademy going from almost no users in 2015 to tens of millions today.

Had you heard of bitcoin before meeting the Unocoin team?

A friend in Pune asked me back in 2010 if I would buy a few hundred bitcoins for a few hundred dollars, and I had no idea what bitcoin was, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. It stayed in the back of my mind until Gartner reports started highlighting blockchain as a trend, which is when it resurfaced for me.

What has your relationship with Unocoin been like?

I was drawn to it not as a fintech play but as a science play, a new technology creating a new business model. From the first meeting I connected with the founders on a personal level. About two years after we met, I personally bought bitcoin on Unocoin and I still hold it.

What stood out to you about the Unocoin team during the RBI legal battle?

For eighteen months they had no revenue, no employees, no salary, and fought India's top regulators in court with public opinion against them. I would just take Harish for coffee in Delhi to show support, never certain it would work out. Winning that judgment was outstanding and remains deeply inspiring to me.