The Omega Files: confessions of a venture capitalist

Synopsis
Home-grown VC firm Blume Venture’s declassification of fund performance is a goldmine of information in the notoriously opaque private-capital world. Success fundamentals: First, a handful of key portfolio companies should deliver outsize gains; and second, the ability of the fund to control the timing of the exit from its investments.

For various stakeholders of the Indian startup ecosystem, including venture-capital investors, founders, teams, bureaucrats, government bodies, journalists, consultants, and analysts, early-stage VC firm Blume Ventures had a Christmas gift: the unboxing of a whole lot of private information on the fund performance. VC firms are notorious for their opacity on actual returns and portfolio performance. Against that backdrop, The Omega Files — that