IAN’s US$70M fund and nurturing for young businesses

Indian Angel Network (IAN), one of the world’s largest seed and early stage investment groups in the startup eco-system, is to raise US$38 million from India and overseas for its second round of Indian funding, reported Press Trust of India on 5 Jan 2018.

It has raised US$32 million from Indian domestic market for the US$70 million IAN Fund 1 which is to support second round for funding for start-ups in India, IAN’s co- founder Padmaja Ruparel said in Singapore 5 Jan 2918.

Confirming the US$ 70 million fund, she said “IAN fund is creating India’s single largest horizontal platform for seed and early stage investment, attracting the best entrepreneurs and best investors for mentoring, and with global market access all to nurture startups”.

“This is important as entrepreneurs can raise from US$30,000 right to up US$7-US$8 million. All they need to do is to keep performing and building the business,” Ruparel told PTI after addressing the India-Singapore Entrepreneurship Bridge 2018 “InSpreuneur”.

Ruparel also underlined the need to mentor start-ups with expert support, hand-holding and ensure market access with delivery and supply chain.

“Money are there for the start-ups, but there is a strong need to nurture these young companies,” she said.

IAN has built a market place for start-ups from mentors to market access and operative chains, she added.

IAN has about 470 investors from 11 countries with investment in 130 companies in 17 sectors. fii-news.com