Indian Angel Network (IAN) has become the first angel investor group globally to raise a 350 crore fund. The fund which marked its first close at rupees 175 Crores has industry stalwarts like Kris Gopalakrishnan, the cofounder and ex-CEO of Infosys; Sunil Munjal, joint managing director of Hero Corp and Dr. Devi Shetty, founder and chairman of Narayan Hrudalaya as part of its advisory committee.

The SEBI registered early-stage venture fund will focus on investing in new-age disruptive technologies and businesses across a broad range of sectors including healthcare and medical devices, SaaS, marketplaces, fintech, big data, AI and hardware, maintaining IAN’s stance of being sector-agnostic. The Fund will support all the IAN deals as well as independently co-invest with other VCs.

The investment committee will comprise renowned leaders including Saurabh Srivastava, serial entrepreneur and cofounder/past chairman NASSCOM and cofounder of IAN; Padmaja Ruparel, cofounder and president at IAN; Ajai Chowdhry, cofounder of HCL; Raman Roy, chairman of NASSCOM, founder of QUATTRO, and cofounder of IAN; Harish Mehta, founder of Onward Group and cofounder of NASSCOM; Alok Mittal, ex-Canaan MD, entrepreneur, and cofounder of IAN; Rakesh Malhotra, entrepreneur. Founder of Luminous, and Rakesh Rewari, ex-DMD of SIDBI.

“IAN is India’s first now arguably the world’s largest angel group. It has revolutionized this space with its own unique model spanning 7 locations in India and overseas and a global membership comprising 450 of the who’s who of marquee entrepreneurs/CEOs. The logical next step is to create country’s largest horizontal platform in India for early stage investments. With this fund IAN is upping the game, supporting entrepreneurs from Rs 50 lakhs to Rs 30 crore, co-investing with other VCs. Our goal is to distribute money as efficiently as possible to get innovators through the most challenging early stages of funding. I am confident that the fund will have a significant role in creating high-growth companies in our country.” Said Saurabh Srivastava, chairman and cofounder at IAN.

Together, IAN and the IAN Fund (plus co-investors), plans to invest approximately Rs 1,500 crore in 160 odd companies over the next 4 years, making IAN the largest early stage investing platform, capable of writing cheques from Rs 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crore.

About Indian Angel Network

Established in 2006 to foster entrepreneurship with prime focus on nurturing and mentoring new generation entrepreneurs, IAN brought the concept of angel investment to India and has been instrumental in bringing India’s start-up ecosystem on the global map. With investors from 10 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded startups across 17 sectors in India and 6 other countries growing global footprint companies. In the calendar years of 2014, 2015 and 2016, IAN has invested about over 32 Million USD in approx. 60 deals.

IAN’s portfolio, with over 120-odd companies, spans 17 sectors across 7 countries. 15 companies have already given cash exits and another 12 have raised next round monies with excellent increase in valuations. Some of its marquee investee companies include WebEngage (6x in 15 months of investment); Druva (289x over 7 years); Stayzilla (21x over 30 months); Box8 (~3x over 4 years), and Consure (10x over 40 months) amongst many others. Most mainstream Indian VCs like Sequoia, Nexus, Matrix Partners, Tenaya, IDG, Kalaari, USF, Accel and Inventus) have done a follow on round in IAN’s portfolio companies or co-invested with it.