Indian Angel Network invests in 52 companies in 2022

Early-stage venture capital firm Indian Angel Network (IAN) has invested $10 million (around Rs 85 crore) in 52 companies this year.

Launched in 2006, the fund has backed startups in fintech, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and direct-to-consumer (D2C) sectors amongst others in their early-stage funding rounds with an average investment amount of Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 crore. It invested in 11 women-led ventures and 13 startups from Tier-II and III cities in 2022.  

The fund, established in 2006, has invested Rs 900 crore in more than 200 companies to date. Currently, IAN has assets under management (AUM) of around $9 billion, it said in a statement.

Commenting on IAN’s performance this year, Padmaja Ruparel, co-founder, IAN, said, “With the growth curve IAN has had, it plans on supporting 500 startups, investing Rs 5,000 crore, and creating 500,000 jobs by 2030.” 

IAN has close to 500 members across the world, across 12 countries as part of its network, and has a presence across geographies. The network is sector agnostic and has funded startups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries. 

IAN’s maiden VC fund, IAN Fund 1, which was launched in 2017 includes companies such as Phool.co, Dhruva Space, WebEngage, Wow! Momo, Propelld, amongst others in its portfolio, has a corpus of Rs 375 crore.  It also launched the IAN Alpha Fund, a SEBI-registered category-II VC fund with a fund corpus of Rs 1,000 crore this year. The year also saw the operationalization of BioAngels, a sector-focused angel investor group, in partnership with the Biotechnology Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). 

In November, IAN led the pre-series A funding round of $1 million of Edmingle, a SaaS platform for small and medium-sized training and coaching businesses. In September, the fund led the seed funding round of Mumbai-based pizza chain Cheelizza raising Rs. 4.11 crore ($504,483). It was also involved in the seed round of EV startup Electrifuel in August 2022.