Back in 2006, India’s start-up scene was next to barren with unicorns such as Flipkart yet to be created. Top investment firms such as Tiger Global or Soft Bank were unheard of. Instead, investing on start-ups was a more informal, family-oriented vocation where generous donors would agree over dinner to lend. That is when the Indian Angel Network (IAN) was created, leveraging the need for formal fund support to start-ups. At this point, there exist more than four-hundred and fifty investors from across eleven nations. In stark contrast to Venture Capitalists (VC), these Angel Investors were ready to invest in small quantities as well. VCs’ complaint was that there was a lot of money, but too few potential companies to be fed that to. Today major contributors to IAN includes the heads of Google India, Infosys and Everest Flavors. Among the top start-ups backed by the IAN includes Pretty Secrets, Uniphore and data warehousing firm Druva Software. IAN now also invests offshore in the UK and Israel.

Source:https://qz.com/1109082/indian-angel-network-ian-the-pioneers-of-indian-angel-investing-are-now-getting-into-the-venture-capital-game/

Uploaded Date:15 November 2017