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We all have heard about angels and their miracles and guiding powers or helping nature. It is all there in our myths and legends and our childhood stories. As we grow up we began to forget these childish stories of angels.
However, in the finance world, there exist real-life angels whose blessings help startups and new ventures develop and grow.
These are known as Angel Investors.
Angel investing in India is not a new term. They have existed since long ago and that's why you shall read today about India's Angel investors list. Yes, they exist in human form without heavenly wings but wings of money to help businesses soar in the commercial sky.
In simple terms, angel Investors in India are playing a crucial role to help small startups turn into great business ventures. As a developing country startups in India are increasing at a rapid speed, and so is the number of Angel Investors in the country. They are actually very famous and effective in India and have invested lakhs of rupees in different startups in India.
Angel Investors Who Are Most Active in Indian Startups
Angel investments are typically the first equity investments in a startup company. Angel investors are frequently previous entrepreneurs or professionals who like working with companies in their early stages of development.
In this article, we are going to be looking at some of the most active and important individuals as well as firm-based angel investors.
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Most Active Individual Angel Investors in India
1. Amit Lakhotia
Amit Lakhotia, a former vice president of Paytm, now a publicly-traded company, invests in startups in addition to running his Park+ enterprise is one of the famous Angel investors in India. Lakhotia, an angel investor in banking firm BharatPe and social commerce platform Trell, launched his smart auto parking company Park+ in 2019. It has previously raised a $25 million Series B round from Sequoia, Matrix, and others. Lakhotia participated in nine fundraising deals in 2021 and sponsored firms such as Fixcraft, GoKwik, and Junio.
2. Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata, a great personality in the Indian industry, is also an active angel investor in the country. He has not only backed companies, but has also mentored and advised a variety of different enterprises, ventures, and programs. Xiaomi, Urban Ladder, Snapdeal, UrbanClap, YourStory, Lybrate, Crayon Data, Cashkaro, Bombay Hemp Company, DogSpot, Invictus Oncology, Bollant, MUrgency, Idea Chakki, and a slew of other firms are among his previous investments.
3. Girish Mathrubootham
Mathrubootham, the cofounder of the now-NASDAQ-listed SaaS business Freshworks, has invested in ed-tech startup Newton School, SaaS-based startup OSlash, and a tech-enabled sales enablement platform GTM Buddy. Mathrubootham has invested in over 35 startups over the years. Freshworks, which began in Chennai and is now located in New York, raised $1 billion from the public market at a $10 billion value, generating 500 billionaires.
4. Rajan Anandan
He is an Indian businessman who has also served as the vice president of Google India. Rajan currently works as the Managing Director of Sequoia Capital and is one of the most active angel investors in the country.
Apart from India, he also invests in Sri-Lankan startups. One of the few angels to invest in early-age startups, Rajan Anandan has invested in startups like Instamojo, Druva, Capillary technologies, Webengage, pregBuddy etc.
5. Binny Bansal
Binny Bansal, the co-founder of Flipkart, which is likely the most valuable Indian business at $36 billion, has been an active angel investor in startups. Walmart purchased Flipkart in May of 2018. Bansal left the company in November of the following year. He co-founded xto10x, a SaaS consultancy business, with former eKart executives Saikiran Krishnamurthy and Neeraj Aggarwal in December 2018. He invested in 12 businesses last year. Some of his recent investments include PlanetSpark, Skill-Lync, and Rupifi, an ed-tech business.
6. Anupam Mittal
Anupam Mittal began his entrepreneurial career with the People Group, which owns Shaadi.com, Makaan.com, and Mauj Mobile. He has invested in over 50 firms over the years, including Ola, Druva, and Whatfix. Last year, Mittal, who was also a shark on Shark Tank India, invested in 11 Indian firms. He invested in Express Stores' seed round of funding last year, with Venture Highway, Kunal Bahl, and Rohit Bansal, among others. Mittal's other major investments include Gobbly and GoKwik's $15 million Series A financing.
7. Kunal Shah
The founder of Cred, Kunal Shah can very be called an icon for the entrepreneurial youth of the country with his liberal and innovative approaches to entrepreneurship and his focus on skill-based hiring.
His ideas and approaches in the investing domain are quite unique too. It is said that he once agreed to a half a million investing round by going through an investing proposal deck on…. Whatsapp!
Furthermore, currently, he is one of the most aggressive angel investors with nearly 200 angel investments more than most of the angel investors on the list.
8. Kunal bahl and Rohi Bansal (the duo)
Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, the founders of the soon-to-be-IPO e-commerce giant Snapdeal, have long been notable angel investors. In 2021, both co-founders have invested in over 91 businesses through their family office Titan Capital. Last year, the partnership made major investments in construction firm Powerplay, Edtech startup Quest, and transportation marketplace startup Vahak.
9. Anuj Srivastava
Srivastava, the founder, and CEO of the recently minted unicorn — Livspace began his career as a manager in the PepsiCo Management Leadership Program. He later joined Google as the global head of product marketing and growth. He invested in roughly ten startups last year, including Nestasia, a home design and lifestyle company, NirogStreet, an Ayurveda doctor platform, and Plum, a health insurance firm.
10. Harshil Mathur
Harshil, the founder of Razorpay, the most valuable fintech business, has been in the spotlight for investing in new-age startups. Mathur, an IIT Roorkee alumnus, co-founded Razorpay with Shashank Kumar in 2014. Razorpay, which began as a payment gateway, has since expanded into numerous verticals, making it one of the country's largest fintech businesses. Razorpay raised funding last year at a valuation of $7.5 billion, bringing it closer to a decacorn valuation. Mathur has previously invested in the B2B cross-border trade platform GlobalFair, the edtech venture Newton School, and the eCommerce startup OneCode.
11. Anjali Bansal
Anjali Bansal, the founder of Avaana Capital, has personally invested in more than five startups in 2021. Bansal, who serves on the boards of Tata Power, Bata, Kotak AMC, and Piramal Enterprises, has invested in unicorn businesses like the soon-to-be-IPOed Delhivery, Urban Company, Darwinbox, publicly-traded Nykaa, and Lenskart. She made investments in Clinikk, Mudrex, and Qapita, among other companies, last year.
There are many other Angel investors who are not part of this Angel investor list. This list is free from any kind of subjective error and no prejudice has been followed.
Most active Angel investor networks in India
1. Indian Angel Network
This is India's first angel investor network, founded in 2006. Last year, it inked 18 term sheets and closed 11 agreements in companies ranging from food tech company Mukund to Go, Coop, an online platform for co-operative and community-based producers. It also operates an incubator and has lately expanded into Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.
2. Mumbai Angels
It is as old as Indian Angels, and it was a time when Indian traditional society was not prepared to welcome angel investing with open arms. Some of its early holdings for investment in startups in India included Adtech business InMobi and apparel eStore Myntra, which was recently acquired by Flipkart. Sasha Mirchandani, one of its founding members, went on to form venture capital company Kae Capital. Last year, Mumbai Angels made 14 investments.
3. Chennai Angels
Chennai is also the home of IIT Madras (Indian Institute of Technology, Madras), which serves as a technology incubator and is home to many startups in India. This is yet another angel network with a track record of success. It has recently grown more active, having made seven startup investments in the previous year, ranging from bus ticketing site TicketGoose to Edtech startup Skyfi Labs to genomics firm Xcode.
4. Hyderabad Angels
Another regional angel network that is rapidly expanding is in Hyderabad, the capital of the state of Telangana. The Telangana government is committed to creating a startup hub in Cyberabad, a district of Hyderabad. Thrillophilia, local activity, and tour discovery portal were some of the firms in which Hyderabad Angels invested last year.
5. Harvard Angels
This network was founded in 2011 in Bangalore by Harvard alumni from India. They have mostly targeted tech startups in India in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. The strength of the alumni network, which includes branches in numerous countries, distinguishes them. The annual meeting of HBS Angels in Silicon Valley brings together global chapter leaders for sharing and collaboration.
6. India Quotients
This is an institutional investor, but its emphasis on pre-revenue early-stage firms makes it more akin to an angel. Yes, it's a little odd, but it's all about making money. Anand Lunia, who formerly worked at Seedfund, founded India Quotient, which has recently made investments in consumer-oriented firms such as property platform Grabhouse and pet network Dogspot and many other startups in India.
7. Seedfund
Again, this is a venture capital business focusing on early-stage investments, and it has made some big-ticket investments, such as RedBus. Mahesh Murthy, a well-known personality in the Indian startup environment and a prolific writer, is one of the co-founders. He progressed from selling vacuum cleaners to becoming an advertising creative director before hitting it rich in Silicon Valley.
As you can see, the domain of angel investing in India comprises both individuals as well as networks of angel investors.
The purpose of both is the same. To invest in startups with their own funds, and help them grow from their initial state into well-developed and profitable ventures.
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