IAN launches maiden fund of ~350 crore

The Indian Angel Network (IAN) on Wednesday announced that it had raised ~350 crore, becoming the first angel group globally to raise such a big fund.

The fund, which marked its first close at ~175 crore, has industry veterans like Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Hero MotoCorp’s Sunil Munjal, and Dr Devi Shetty, founder and chairman, Narayan Hrudalaya, as part of its advisory committee.

The SEBI registered earlystage venture fund will focus on investing in new-age disruptive technologies and businesses across a broad range of sectors, including health care and medical devices, SaaS (software as a service), marketplaces, fintech, big data, artificial intelligence and hardware, maintaining IAN’s stance of being sector-agnostic, said the Network.

The fund will support all the IAN deals as well as independently co-invest with other venture capitals.

The IAN claims itself to be the world’s largest angel group, with its own model spanning seven locations in India and overseas and a global membership comprising 450 marquee entrepreneurs and chief executive officers.

The logical next step is to create the country’s largest horizontal platform for early-stage investments. With this fund, the IAN is upping the game, supporting entrepreneurs from ~50 lakh to ~30 crore, co-investing with other VCs.

“Our goal is to distribute money as efficiently as possible to get innovators through the most challenging early stages of funding. I am confident that the fund will have a significant role in creating high-growth companies in our country,” said Saurabh Srivastava, chairman and cofounder, IAN.