For any start-up, the one critical factor that catalyzes its success is – fundraising. You got an idea, you get the much-needed finances, and boom, your business avoids slipping back to square one. With insufficient resources, the start-up has no other option but to draw the curtains. No doubt, why start-up founders hail the early backers as “angel investors.”
India, the 3rd largest start-up space worldwide, houses a robust and flourishing angel investment network. And despite the high risks related to start-up fundings, the ecosystem is now seeing more entrants turning into angel investors. In 2020, start-up investments by angel investors and angel networks surged to 24%, hitting a record-high $341 Mn.
Wealthy share market traders, high-net-worth start-up employees redeeming ESOPs, second-time founders, bankers, and even white-collar employees are turning into angel investors to capitalize on the start-up funding race.
To That End, Let's Talk About The Five Major Angel Investors In India Last Year (2021)
Kunal Shah
The founder and CEO of fintech company CRED, Kunal Shah has over 200 investments, including Unacademy, Innov8, and Bharat Bazaar. He often funds after getting pitches on a WhatsApp message and has cut deals with 78 start-ups in 2021 through 81 investment rounds. His top investments entail logistics aggregator Shiprocket, Ananth Narayanan's unicorn Mensa Brands, and bike taxi platform Rapido.
Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal
Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, co-founders of Snapdeal, closely follow Kunal Shah. Both the retail platform creators mostly bet on start-ups via a funding vehicle - Titan Capital. Talking about Kunal, he has been an active angel investor in tech firms and has more than 150 start-up investments under his belt across the US, India, and Southeast Asia, including unicorns - Razorpay, Ola, Urban Company.
While Bahl financed 36 start-ups in 2021, Bansal did so across 34. One of the key highlights included investing in social gaming start-up Hike in a funding round organized by Justin Mateen, co-founder of Tinder.
Ramakant Sharma
Ramakant Sharma is a veteran tech entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in tech-based start-ups (consumer internet, SaaS, and deep tech) and early-phase fundings. He has been immensely involved in the Indian start-up realm being an angel investor and guiding 40+ new businesses.
Co-founding home and interior platform Livspace, Sharma, made it to this list with investments across around 33 start-ups in 2021. He recently became an angel investor for Byju's after the ed-tech giant acquired its younger counterpart Toppr.
Anupam Mittal
Anupam Mittal, well-known for Shaadi.com, is the founder of the People Group, incorporating firms such as Makaan.com, Mauj Mobile, and People Pictures. With his chart-topping venture Shaadi.com, Mittal is a textbook case of entrepreneur-turned-investor who has comprehensively transformed the Indian arranged marriage vertical. Over the past few years, Anupam Mittal has betted on about 50 start-ups, including Ola Cabs, Druva, DailyNinja.
In 2021, he also emerged as a founders' favourite, with investments across around 26 start-ups. Some of the most notable ones include fintech start-up BharatX and intercity mobility start-up Zingbus.
That's A Wrap
Being part of the world’s 3rd largest start-up economy, the opportunities for Indian start-ups in the future are boundless. At present, India is home to over 6,000 angel investors (and counting) who are always hunting for optimistic and determined entrepreneurs to invest in and guide them to create success stories.
Businesses that took off from the grassroots have now climbed up significantly. Particularly now, as we rise from the crippling economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its new variant (s), angel investors are tremendously crucial to the survival of start-ups and small businesses.