These angel investors offer crucial funding for start-ups in India in their early years

We profile ten good women and men from across India who believe in helping start-ups into the business ecosystem

Imagine you have a great business idea, some capital saved from years of scrimping and scrounging and yet are unable to hit the ground running. Budding tech hospitality entrepreneur Aneesh Patel from Ahmedabad says, “I really wanted to start a cloud kitchen after graduating from college but I didn’t have enough capital. In my case, my angel investors were friends of my parents who decided to invest in the business.” Patel has worked out an equity deal with his angel investors in which they own a part of the business and will get regular updates from him on the business. While Patel’s food business is in the incubation stage and will launch a few months from now, entrepreneurs the world over work with the help of personal networks, including family and friends.

Angel investors are the good folks who offer start-up companies crucial funding in the early years. This is usually in exchange for a part of the business which can take the form of equity or royalties. Most “angels” get involved in the early stage of a company, that is, at the actual “seed” or “angel” funding step. This often means that the angel sometimes commits to an investment when the business is just at the ideation stage.

Organisations such as Mumbai Angels and the Indian Angel Network and a slew of similar chapters are more formal ways of approaching business folks for capital but there also exist a few good women and men who are determined to bring in better business talent, ideas and, of course, profit into the entrepreneurial landscape. We profile some of them.

Ratan Tata

In his 80s, the chairman emeritus of the Tata Group, Ratan Naval Tata, remains committed to the idea of Indian entrepreneurship. He says entrepreneurs must have “​the drive to start something new, the fire in the belly, a better way to do something that is being done or a good opportunity to undertake all to make a difference... and above all the courage and tenacity to see it through, be it good or bad, and yet make it happen.” To put his money where his mouth is, Tata has invested in more than two dozen companies, some of which include Urban Ladder (now owned by the Reliance group), Paytm and Ola. The most recent one was Goodfellows, founded by his protege Shantanu Naidu, which aims at providing services to senior citizens. Earlier this year, Aditi Bhosale Walunj, co-founder of Repos, shared on Linkedin how she met Tata and his investment in the energy distribution start-up.

Kunal Shah

The founder of credit card payment rewards company CRED has acquired an almost cult status in the start-up universe. Kunal Shah began working at 15, eventually building PaisaBack, a cash-back and promotional discount campaign platform for retailers, which became FreeCharge in 2010. FreeCharge was later acquired by Snapdeal in 2015 and Shah exited in 2016. In 2018, he set up the app CRED, where users make credit card payments and earn rewards. CRED has amassed over 7.5 million members and processes about 20 per cent of all credit card payments in India. Shah’s investments are in multiple companies such as Go-Jek, Zilingo, Unacademy, Shuttl, Chillr, Innov8, Lifcare, TinyOwl, Spinny, Jugnoo, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Azani, Tapzo, Runnr, Flyrobe, Razorpay, Voonik, TVF, PocketAces, Rupeek and Dil Mil. An active user of LinkedIn, he has 863,750 followers and over 500 connections on the forum.

Rajan Anandan

Currently managing director at the big daddy of venture capitalist firms, Sequoia Capital, Rajan Anandan, who has worked at Google India and Microsoft, is one of the country’s most active “angels”. He has invested in over 70 companies related to Artificial Intelligence (AI), agritech, farming, biotech and business support services. His interest lies in start-ups in India and Sri Lanka, and he has also co-founded Blue Ocean Ventures, the first seed fund in the island nation. Some of the companies Anandan has invested in are Omnify PlusPin, Freshtohome, Styledotme, Codejudge and Trell.

Ashwini Asokan

A pioneering entrepreneur in the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Ashwini Asokan is a firm believer of gender parity and data-driven businesses. Asokan's work is at the intersection of technology, people and complex organisational systems. Before she co-founded Mad Street Den, Asokan had led the mobile innovation portfolio as part of Intel Labs at Silicon Valley, and was responsible for driving research and development of cutting-edge mobile products. An investor in Nextbillion.ai, Asokan said in an interview, “I angel-invest extensively, and every third resume I get has women founders in it. But it’s just scratching the surface.”

Anupam Mittal

One of the seven judges on Shark Tank India, Anupam Mittal hit the jackpot in the early years of the dotcom boom of the 1990s, when he founded the matchmaking service shaadi.com. Mittal’s early investments in companies like Ola Cabs, Druva and BigBasket have propelled him to pursue the side gig of being an active angel for start-ups. His interest areas are in technology, consumer Internet, mobile, healthcare and SaaS companies. His LinkedIn bio says it all: “Entrepreneur, Explorer, Eternal Optimist, Shark at Shark Tank India, Investor in 200+ Tech & Brand Startups.”

Meeta Malhotra

One of two partners at Ray+Keshavan, a consultancy that was acquired by media conglomerate WPP, Meeta Malhotra later co-founded a SaaS enterprise product that was acquired by BMC Software. An active player in India’s start-up ecosystem, having invested in companies like YourStory and LetsVenture, Malhotra advises several young companies on their brand, design and marketing strategies. In 2020, she also launched The Hard Copy as a resource that offers case studies, insights and advice for anyone building digital-first, design-led brands. Malhotra has helped to create some of India’s biggest consumer and financial services brands, from Airtel and Kotak Bank to Bru Coffee and Vistara Airlines.

Nandini Mansinghka

Co-Founder and CEO of Mumbai Angels Network, Nandini Mansinghka has worked with investment banking, media and education industries and for more than five years with J.P. Morgan in India. She’s also the founder investor at Digibooster, a sales and marketing start-up. Some of the areas that Mansinghka invests in are AI, agritech, farming, biotech, clean-tech, commerce and shopping. Some of her investments include Aker Foods, Brainwired, Pixuate AGRO2O and Celcius.

Revathy Ashok

In 2005, Revathy Ashok was named as one of the 10 most powerful women in the Indian IT industry by Dataquest. Along with being co-founder at Strategy Garage– which aims at fostering entrepreneurship in India–and an active mentor at the Indian Angel Network, Ashok has invested in areas related to transportation and logistics. An active angel investor with investments in over 15 start-ups, she works closely with her investee companies on various strategic matters, helping them build value and scale. In 2017, she was named as one of the top women angel investors by Inc.42. During her career spanning over 37 years, she was managing director of Tishman Speyer PE Fund and has held CFO positions at Syntel, Tyco and Microland, with experience in capital raising, business development and negotiating M&A as well as JV transactions.

Padmaja Ruparel

When asked about what she feels about being an angel investor, Padmaja Ruparel has previously said, “My investment thesis–entrepreneur, entrepreneur and entrepreneur. More than the company, I believe in investing in the entrepreneurs–those who are not solely driven by their valuation. An entrepreneur's passion forms 70 per cent of my investment thesis. I am not willing to bet on a weak entrepreneur.” Co-founder at Indian Angel Network and founding partner of the IAN Fund, Ruparel has been recognised by Fortune India as a "Most Powerful Woman" for four years; she appears on Forbes India’s W-Power Trailblazers list; and the “30 Most Powerful Women in India” list by Business Today for three consecutive years. Moreover, she was also awarded The Women Economic Forum’s “Women of the Decade in Investment Banking” award. The areas that she invests in are as diverse as SAAS, D2C, sustainability-focused start-ups, tech enablement in healthcare, finance, space sector, manufacturing tech, drone tech, biotech and pharmaceuticals.

Shanti Mohan

A self-described serial entrepreneur, Shanti Mohan’s Twitter bio reads: “Founder @letsventurein, #investor in 40+ startups-Spottabl, Siply, DonateKart, Bimaplan, Junio, GoBillion, Partner at http://propell.fund.” As founder and CEO of LetsVenture, a platform that connects start-ups and accredited investors, Mohan has an unique position in the investment space–incubating teams and defining frameworks for start-ups. In 2021, she launched a new micro-venture capital firm Propell, to invest in early-stage start-ups. The fund aims to deploy ₹50 crore in a total of 30 start-ups across sectors such as e-commerce, fintech, SaaS and direct-to-consumer firms. The fund has already invested in 15 start-ups including savings and investment app Jar, social commerce app GoBillion, e-commerce player Zaamo and upskilling platform Seekho, among others. It has also co-invested with Y Combinator, Sequoia, Accel, Tiger Global, 3one4 capital and several prominent angels.

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