Planning to startup ? This could just be the news you were looking for. In what could well be one of the largest early-stage funds ever raised for upcoming Indian startups, Indian Angel Network — unarguably country’s largest angel investor group — is reportedly raising a staggering $22 million in a new funding round.
The money will be used to co-invest in early-stage startups with its angel network.
A person aware of the matter said, that IAN has already registered a fund with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and are on a move to raise the fund. He further said that the fund will be raised from within their own network of angel investors.
This new funding round for IAN comes at a time when many private equity firms and VC firms are raising further capital to invest in startups. Many new firms have come up to invest in early-stage startups, including Unicorn India Ventures, Stellaris Venture Partners, WaterBridge Ventures, Endiya Partners, etc.
Indian Angel Network (IAN) was founded in 2006 and has more than 400 angel investors in its network. Apart from providing angel funding, IAN is also running incubation programmes with partners such as National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board of the government of India, leading automotive tyre manufacturer Michelin and Small Industries Development Bank of India.
Another person aware of the matter, added,
Angel networks operate on a first-come-first-serve basis, so when an interesting deal comes along, only the angels that show interest early are able to participate in the round and many angels end up losing out on that particular investment.
With a fund that co-invests in these deals, all the angel investors who are part of the fund still get an opportunity to invest, indirectly through the fund.
IAN has been very active so far in the current year. In 2016 alone, IAN has made around 17 investments so far. In 2015, it made 16 investments while in 2014, it made just 11.
The portfolio companies of the angel network includes Square Plums Technologies, hotel booking platform FindMyStay, fashion technology start-up Protinus Fashion Networking Pvt. Ltd, media-tech enterprise Little Black Book and entertainment app Roast Media Pvt. Ltd.
As per the report from Innoven Capital, angel investment in India in Financial Year 2016 stood at Rs. 113.6 crore across 69 deals, a rise of about 62% in deal value and 47% in deal volume from the previous financial year. In FY15, about Rs.70 crore was invested across 47 deals.
