IAN Fund appoints former Cisco director Bose as managing partner

NEW DELHI: Delhi-based angel investors group, Indian Angel Network, on Friday named former Cisco director Pratik Bose as managing partner for its recently announced IAN Fund.

With a corpus of ₹350 crore, IAN Fund will invest in earlystage companies engaged in software as a service (Saas), financial technology, big data, artificial intelligence and hardware sector. The fund announced its first close of ₹175 crore earlier in April.

Bose will lead the investments for IAN Fund that also will co-invest with other angles from the network.

A management graduate from New York University’s Stern School of Business, Bose oversaw investments in Asia Pacific region for Cisco between 2007 and 2017.

He has previously worked with Eka Systems, a US-based maker of electricity management devices, remote access applications firm Altiga Networks (acquired by Cisco) and Comsat Labs (acquired by Lockheed Martin) in the US.

“I am excited to be part of the IAN Fund and grow the best in class seed/early stage investor. This fund is exactly what the ecosystem needs as this will bring a paradigm shift for start-ups,” Bose said in a statement.

Indian Angel Network co-founder Saurabh Srivastava, Quatrro Global Services chairman Raman Roy and Ajai Chowdhry, a founding member of HCL group, will be part of the investment committee, while Infosys vice-chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan, Narayana Health founder Devi Shetty and Hero MotoCorp’s Sunil Munjal will serve as advisors.

Established in 2006 by Srivastava and Padmaja Ruparel, Indian Angel Network is among the largest angel networks in Asia, with 479 independent entrepreneurs and investors, and seven institutions as its members, according to its website.

The network has facilitated over 50 investment deals in startups so far, including FabAlley, Box8 and Riddlr.