We’re currently floating in what is called a startup ecosystem. Everybody has an idea, and surprisingly enough, these ideas aren’t all that bad. In fact, they’re spinning us clever Indians a few million bucks every year. Seriously! Check out these startups in India that fared well this year.
But not everyone with a brilliant idea is born with a silver spoon in their mouths and the monetary capacity to start something all by themselves. Here is where the awesome angel investors come in. These are usually experienced entrepreneurs (‘experienced’ being key here because their guidance would be studied and most of all, precious) that believe that your ideas aren’t complete nonsense. I mean, it takes some guts to provide capital for a business in its early stages! So we’re helping you brilliant minds out there with a list of angel investors in India you should definitely check out.
40+ angel investors every entrepreneur should know about:
1) Abhishek Rungta
Along with being an entrepreneur and strategist, Abhishek Rungta is the founder & CEO at Indus Net Technologies, a web development and digital marketing company. Flexible and focused entrepreneurs are his usual target as candidates for investment. He has invested in companies like iDubba, Shoppo.in, Morpheus Tritya, CarSingh, EduOra and Azoi Inc.
2) Ajeet Khurana
Avid Indian angel investor, business consultant and mentor, Ajeet Khurana is a part of the Board of Directors of Carve Niche Technologies and a member of Mumbai Angels. He is famously known to invest about ten thousand dollars in eight startups every year! Ajeet has invested in companies like Rolocule Games, ShepHertz, Maximojo, United Mobile Apps, Carveniche Technologies, Karmic Lifesciences and PickMe eSolutions.
3) Alok Mittal
Alok Mittal is actively a part of various angel investment networks; founding member at the Indian Angel Network and Band of Angels, India. Additionally, he heads operations at Canaan Partners, India. This seasoned angel Indian investor has invested in companies like Unitedlex, Consim Info, Globalthen, Taxspanner, Viedea Capital, MotorExchange India, iYogi and Equitas.
4) Anand Ladsariya
The CEO of a privately owned manufacturing and exports company (Everest Flavours Ltd.), Anand Ladsariya is an active Indian angel investor with both Mumbai Angels and Indian Angel Network. His list of investments is long and boasts of names like Traffline, Exclusively.in, Aurality, Dexl, Speakwell, Framebench, Asiatic, Serial Innovation, Morpheus Tritya, Mobiquest, No Paper Form, Algorhythm, Trikal, Svasti Microfinance, Wild East, Talent Bridge and Reverse Logistics Corporation.
5) Anand Rajaraman
Anand Rajaraman co-founded Kosmix with the vision of connecting people to information that makes a difference in their lives. After the acquisition of Kosmix by Walmart, Anand worked as the Senior Vice President at Walmart Global. His investments include Facebook, (one of the earliest angel investors in 2005) PunchTab, AppNexus, Hightail, Trifacta, LocBox, Gild, BlueShift Labs, Glooko, Joyus, Gigaom, Aster Data Systems, Qubole, TiE LaunchPad, Efficient Frontier and Chaupaati Bazaar.
6) Anuj Pulstya
Apart from being the founder of Mute Health Bar in Delhi, a restaurant that serves healthy fast food, Anuj Pulstya is an experienced tech enthusiast with a Master’s degree in Computer Science and experience in entrepreneurship. He has invested in companies like Zuvvu, Ideophone, Croak.it, Framebench and Innovese.com.
7) Ashish Gupta
Ashish Gupta has co-founded two successful companies – Tavant Technologies and Junglee.com and is currently the managing director at Helion Ventures Pvt Ltd. He is known to prefer working with entrepreneurs that are flexible and open to changing themselves according to the needs of the organization. His investments include ShopSocially, MakeMyTrip, Daksh and Mu Sigma Analytics.
8) Bala Parthasarathy
Bala Parthasarathy has built three companies, one of which was Snapfish. (later bought by Hewlett Packard in 2005) As General Manager and managing director for Snapfish International, he was the brains behind it becoming the world’s largest online photo site with over a hundred million users in over 20 countries in Europe and Asia Pacific. He has made investments in companies like GROMOR and Synup.
9) Deepak Shahdadpuri
Over a decade and a half of experience with private equity along with being the founder and managing director of DSG Consumer Partners, we have Deepak Shahdadpuri. He is also on the strategic advisory board of Magic Bus India, a non-profit organization helping underprivileged kids through sports activities. His list of investments boast the likes of Cleartrip, Rockbot, Addy, Authy, Weaved, Birdi, Syndicates Fund 1, Skykick, RedMart, ZipDial, OYO Rooms EkStop and Doonya. The list goes on; Indian Home Gourmet Pvt. Ltd., Exito Gourmet, Bakers Circle, Veeba Food Services, Digital E-Life, Sula Wines, Saraf Foods Ltd and Tierra Food India.
10) Dhiraj Rajaram
Dhiraj Rajaram is the founder of Mu Sigma, an analytics services provider. He serves as Mu Sigma’s Chairman of the Board and CEO. Dhiraj was a former strategy consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton. He has invested in Box 8, a new Indian Quick Service Restaurant that offers fresh and healthy alternative food options to young working professionals and customers.
11) Freeman Murray
Famously and magnanimously known for setting up Startupschool.in in Kochi, (a residential mentoring programme made to help young and budding entrepreneurs create mobile and internet-based start-ups) Freeman Murray is currently the founder and director at Jaaga.in. His investments include Recruiterbox, HashCube, Innoz, iBloom Technologies and Beevolve.
12) Ganesh Krishnan
Serial entrepreneur and promoter, Ganesh Krishnan has founded a number of companies like bigbasket.com and tutorvista.com. He is also currently the chairman and co-founder of Portea Medical and a member on the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. His investments include Must See India, Syndicates Fund 1, SilverPush, HackerEarth, Overcart, Oximity, Browntape.com, delyver.com, onlineprasad.com, Marketics, bookadda.com and avagmah.
13) Gaurav Kachru
Seasoned investor Gaurav Kachru has led over 15 successful transactions spanning investment, divestment & fund raising across sectors. He is currently the founder and managing partner of 5ideas Startup Superfuel, a seed-stage startup fund. His investments include DataWeave, Giveter.com, Bigfoot Retail (kartrocket.com) and roposo.com.
14) Kanwal Rekhi
Known to be the first Indo-American founder & CEO to take a venture-backed company public on the NASDAQ, Kanwal Rekhi is currently the managing director at Inventus Capital. He has invested in technology companies like Hotmail, Exodus, Kaboodle, Apptivity, CyberMedia, Mediaway, Zietnet, Sierra Atlantic, and Versata.Ensim, Instantis, 123SignUp and Paramark.
15) Karthik Reddy
Karthik Reddy is the co-founder and managing partner at Blume Ventures, an angel and seed venture fund that helps startups with both funding as well as mentoring. Karthik himself has invested in companies like TripVillas, ZipDial, Aurality, Recruiterbox, HashCube, Pugmarks.me, WebEngage and Adepto Solutions.
16) Kunal Bahl
Kunal Bahl is the co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal.com which is India’s second largest online marketplace. He has studied Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania as well Marketing and Operations Strategy at The Wharton School as part of a dual degree. Kunal’s angel investments include Olacabs, Housing.com and Unicommerce.
17) Maneesh Bhandari
Entrepreneur turned active investor, Maneesh Bhandari was previously the founder and CEO of IT firm – SENA Systems. He has collected experience of over two decades in entrepreneurship, mentoring and consulting social enterprises, technology and finally investing. Maneesh’s investments include Tookitaki, Actionrun, Ideophone, Framebench, Mobiotics, Lets Intern Career Solutions, Innovese.com, Krayon Pictures and LetsIntern.
18) Mukesh Bansal
Mukesh Bansal is the founder & CEO of Myntra.com, an Indian e-commerce company of fashion and casual lifestyle products. Within the first three years, Myntra became the country’s largest personalization platform with over 50% of the market share. Mukesh has previously worked as a software engineer and senior product manager at places like Centrata, Ewanted.com and Nextag.com. His angel investments are Zopnow, UrbanTouch (sold to fashionandyou.com) and Kae Capital (Angel Fund).
19) Mukund Mohan
Mukund Mohan is the CEO of Jivity, a leading social commerce company. He has previously founded (and later sold) BuzzGain, a do-it-yourself PR enterprise. Additionally, he has founded and successfully sold three Silicon Valley startups in the internet & enterprise software markets. His investments include Plivo and Azoi Inc.
20) Naveen Tewari
Naveen Tewari is the founder and CEO of InMobi, the world’s largest independent mobile advertising network. He is also the founder and chairman of India SchoolHouse Fund, a nonprofit enterprise that works to ensure effective delivery of education in poor rural areas of India. Naveen’s investments include tushky.com, moneysights, Mettl.com and Lets Venture (Angel Fund).
21) Pallav Nadhani
Co-founder and CEO of Fusion Charts and RazorFlow and CEO at Collabion, seemingly a serial multi-tasker, Pallav Nadhani has also started an angel fund – seeders.in. Angel investor in mainly tech companies, his investments include Plivo, iimjobs, The Morpheus, Azoi Inc., iDubba, Shopo.in, Eduora, CarSingh, CapricornGifting, Cropex and Eduora Technologies.
22) Pankaj Jain
Pankaj Jain is the founder & country coordinator of Startup Weekend India. His list of investments is long and pretty impressive; 500 Startups, Partender, Holidog, 9slides, SilverPush, Sourceeasy, eponym, Tamatem, Gazemetrix, WalletKit, Credii, Admission Table, Junglee Games, ThingLink, inSparq, AbbeyPost, TargetingMantra, TradeBriefs, Instamojo and SchoolAdmissions. In addition, he has invested in PriceBaba, tushky.com, CultureAlley, Chaldal.com, ZipDial, Social Cops, Seat 14A, DataWeave, KartRocket, BlueGape and Zaankay.
23) Rahul Khanna
After returning from Silicon Valley in 2005, Rahul Khanna has played a pivotal role in the development of the venture ecosystem in India; he is recognized as an active investor in various high growth enterprises. This Indian angel investor is currently the managing director at Canaan Partners and his list of investments include Games2Win, Unmetric, AdNear, Loylty Rewardz, Cocoberry, BillDesk, Motor Exchange and Reviews42.
24) Rajan Anandan
Rajan Anandan is currently the managing director at Google India. His previous work experience boasts of him as the Managing Director at Microsoft India and Dell India. His long list of investments include MissMalini.com, ABreakPlease.com, WebEngage, StepOut, MyShaadi.in, iDubba, Sourceeasy, 24/7 Techies, Instamojo, CultureAlley, Social Cops, Mobilewalla, Socialblood, DataWeave, Druva, Emo2, HashCube, Airwoot, Sapience, Explara, Giftery.in and Snaplion. In addition to these, Rajan has invested in Lumos Design Technology, Goonj, Taxspanner.com, Letsventure, CHERISH, skoolshop.com, Digilogues, Kwench, exclusively.in (acquired by Myntra), wiziq.com, Peel-Works and Travelkhana.
25) Rajesh Sawhney
Founder of Global Superangels Forum (GSF), Rajesh Sawhney prefers investing in startups with ideas that stand apart, people that like to dream big and look to target bigger markets. His investments include Autowale, Chhotu, Viki, SilverPush, MobStac, HackerEarth, tushky.com, Overcart, Little Eye Labs, Browntape.com, AirStream, Gingr, TripMD, Dexl, Speakwell and Serial Innovations.
26) Ram Shriram
One of the first investors in Google, Ram Shriram is also a board member at the technology giant. He has previously served as an officer at Amazon.com. His investments include StumbleUpon, Cleartrip.com, Google, Pinkberry, Bump Technologies, ZenPayroll, Expa, MightyText, Mint, Nebula, Heap, Campanja, Perfect Audience and Skycatch. Additionally, his further investments are InMobi, DataFox, Callaway Digital Arts, Anchor Intelligence, Voxel, Inkling, Tellme, Zazzle and Platial.
27) Ravi Gururaj
Serial entrepreneur with five ventures and two public exits, Ravi Gururaj is the chairman & co-founder of Frictionless Ventures where he is building and investing in innovative software products mainly in the cloud, mobile and data segments. His investments include Iron.io, GrexIt, Tookitaki, Graymatics, Socialblood, Gridcentric, PrettySecrets, Explara, SyncUsUp, VMLogix, Core Mobile, Handy Elephant, Aurus Network Infotech Pvt. Ltd, Imly, Systemantics, HomeKart and Routo.
28) Rehan Yar Khan
Rehan Yar Khan was recently in the news for raising INR 300 crore for his maiden venture capital fund, Orios Venture Partners. He has led investments in over 15 early stage companies and is a board member at Harvard Angels. His investments include Exclusively.in, Olacabs, Jigsee, PrettySecrets, Sapience, Kwench Library Solution, Docsuggest, Unbxd, Druva Software, Groffr, Snaplion, Reach Accountant, Buytheprice, Taxspanner and Polama.
29) Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal
Sachin and Binny Bansal are, like any news reading Indian already knows, the founders of Flipkart. Sachin is the CEO and Binny the COO of this leading ecommerce website. Interestingly enough, this clever Bansal duo initially wanted to get into the gaming world; Sachin, a professional gamer and Binny, a builder of computer games. Their investments include Roposo.com, TouchTalent.com and Giveter.com.
30) Sandeep Singhal
Sandeep Singhal is currently the director at Datagres and Cloudbyte Inc. He has also held senior roles at McKinsey & Company, Digital Equipment and EDA Systems. His investments include Suminter India Organics, Sedemac Mechatronics, Scalarc, Eka Software, Altruist Technologies and Netmagic Solutions. Many of his previous investments have had successful exits, including CustomerAsset (acquired by Firstsource), Intigma (acquired by Emptoris) and MakeMyTrip (sale to SAIF Partners).
31) Sanjeev Aggarwal
Engineer turned investor, Sanjeev Aggarwal is the co-founder and managing director at Helion Ventures Pvt Ltd. Previously, he has worked for a number of leading technology companies serving the Indian market, including Motorola, Digital Equipment Corporation and 3COM. He has invested in companies like Kirusa, Mindworks, Zmanda, Anantara, Komli, Gridstone and Makemytrip.com.
32) Sasha Mirchandani
Sasha Mirchandani is the Managing Partner of Kae Capital and co-founder of Mumbai Angels. He has previously served as the Managing Director at Blue Run Ventures India before which he was CEO and founder of Imercius Technologies, a BPO focused on the healthcare space. He is also a Board member at Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd., Algorhythm Tech, Akasaka Electronics Ltd., Mojo Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Sasha’s investments include vetted, CultureAlley, Trace and Airwoot.
33) Sashi Reddi
Say hello to but another serial entrepreneur in our list, Sashi Reddi. He is currently a board member at several companies including Hello Curry, ShepHertz Technologies, YuppTV and Glassbeam, Inc. Sashi prefers investing in companies with a strong and focused founding team so that he may be able to give a standing contribution. His investments include Oximity, Glassbeam, KonciergeMD, Shopo.in, Edutor, GIBSS.in, Silicon India and Yupptv.
34) Sharad Sharma
Ex CEO of Yahoo! India, Sharad Sharma is a member of the Indian Angel Network and co-founder of iSPIRT Foundation and BrandSigma Inc. His investments include Stayzilla, Mobilewalla, HashCube, Kwench Library Solution, Vayavya Labs, Druva Software, Consure Medical and i7networks. The list gets longer with – Peelworks, Aurus Network Infotech Pvt. Ltd, Taxspanner, Birds Eye Systems, Ezetap, Iken Solutions, TechFetch.com and Silvan Innovation Labs.
35) Shekhar Kirani
An active angel investor since 2007, Shekhar Kirani is a partner at Accel Partners and board member in various international and Indian companies like ChargeBee, Hotelogix, Freshdesk and Surewaves. He has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, a Mechanical Engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Science, India, and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science from the University of Mysore. Shekhar’s investments include FreshDesk, Hotelogix, MobStac and SureWaves.
36) Srini Koppolu
Ex-managing director of Microsoft’s India Development Center in Hyderabad and the first President of Hyderabad Angel Network, Srini Koppolu is currently founder & executive Chairman of the news aggregation website Veooz Labs. (which was formerly SETU Software Systems). His investments include Mojostreet, Haileo and medplusindia.com.
37) Sunil Kalra
A member of the Indian Angel Network, Sunil Kalra is an independent angel investor who has also been on the Board of Governors of the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies. He has made some pretty significant investments in microfinance and analytics enterprises but prefers online startups. His investments include Instamojo, MyShaadi.in, TargetingMantra, CultureAlley, Aurality, Blume Ventures, Mobilewalla, Druva, Innoveda, Jigsee, HashCube, Airwoot, Frrole, Crayon Data, Kwench Library Solution, Vayavya Labs, OrangeScape, Taxspanner.com and Goonj. In addition to these, Sunil has invested in Buytheprice, Cherish Maternity, Peelworks, Webclipper, Sensibol, Qikkwell, Lets Venture, InnoVital Systems, Uttkarsh, Innovise Tech, Reservoir Capital and Consure.
38) Suvir Sujan
Nexus Venture Partners’ Suvir Sujan was previously co-founder and co-CEO of Bazee.com, a leading online marketplace in India that later merged with eBay in 2004 to form eBay India. He then became Country Manager at eBay India. Suvir has an MBA from the Harvard Business School where he was the Co-President of the South Asian Business Association and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (High Distinction) from the University of Maryland at College Park. He has invested in Gezlong.
39) Venky Harinarayan
Venky Harinarayan is known to be one of the earliest investors in Facebook. He is the co-founder of Cambrian Ventures and Kosmix who previously co-founded Junglee Corp. and played an important role at Amazon.com in the late 1990s. His investments include Lyft, Facebook, PunchTab, AppNexus, Hightail, Trifacta, LocBox, Gild, BlueShift Labs, Glooko, Joyus, Whisper, Aster Data Systems, Kosmix, Qubole, TiE LaunchPad, Giga Omni Media and Efficient Frontier.
40) Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the founder of Paytm and One97. He is known to use the mobility fund of One97 to invest in early stage mobile internet startups. His investments include a myriad of enterprises like SilverPush, Sourceeasy, tushky.com and GrexIt. Plus – EduKart, Milaap Social Ventures, iimjobs, Dexetra, Wishberg, AirStream, Signals, Chhotu.in, Milaap and Milaap.org.
41) Vishal Gondal
Vishal Gondal is the founder & CEO at GOQii Inc. and Partner at Sweat and Blood Venture Group and CEO at IndiaGames Ltd. Although he prefers investing in online companies, Vishal has made some pretty significant investments in the healthcare and travel industry as well. His investments include Skift, Babuki, Docsuggest, Gama Entertainment, Examify and Instablogs.
Note: Angel Investors have been arranged in alphabetical order. The list does not indicate any rank system or hierarchy.
There you have it. A list of some pretty impressive angel investors always looking for a good idea to fund.
Think we missed out on a few angel investors in India? Do let us know in the comments section.
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