Mumbai Angels sees 36 exits, eyes 50 investments this year

Early-stage investors’ platform Mumbai Angels Network considers the year 2020 as one of its best years. The Angel investor witnessed around 36 exits that included start-ups like Purplle, Unocoin, Exotel and Mcaffiene. Of these, exits in Purplle and Exotel saw stellar 51x and 18.9x returns, respectively.

Mumbai Angels is now gearing up for a similar number of exits this year too.

“At any given point of time, 20-25 per cent of our portfolio companies are going through conversations for the next round. Currently, 17-20 of our portfolio companies are going through conversations for an exit in the current quarter,” said Nandini Mansinghka, co-promoter and chief executive officer (CEO) of Mumbai Angels Network. “Our primary goal is to make sure that investors that come in are getting good returns on their investment over 45 years,” she added.

Purplle has raised $45 million from Sequoia Capital India and existing investors Verlinvest, Blume Ventures and JSW Ventures. Seven months ago, Unocoin, India's earliest player in the crypto currency exchange space, raised an undisclosed amount from Tim Draper’s Draper Associate. The angel network, founded in 2006 by Sasha Mirchandani and Prashant Choksi, currently has an active portfolio of around 100 startups. 2020 was its best in terms of investments and network growth despite the pandemic. This indicates that investor sentiment has not been dampened by Covid, said Mansinghka. “Almost all family offices are looking at allocating a certain amount of their funds to start-ups, making it a mainstream investment option. This number will grow in double digits year-on-year, with everyone who has a sizable portfolio looking to invest 4-5 per cent of their funds in startups,” added Mansinghka.

The platform closed 36 fresh investments last year with each valued between ~50 lakh and ~2 crore. It added 300 new angel investors to the platform, making it a 550-strong angel network. This shows the emergence of start-ups as an asset class. The platform is looking at around 50-60 new investments this year. “We are not after unicorn hunting. We are looking at firms, which will give healthy returns and grow very fast. If you keep investing in innovative companies, there will be unicorns that come out of it,” said Mansinghka.