Indian Angel Network launches Rs 1,000 crore venture capital fund

The new fund seeks to invest in cleantech and the environment, healthtech, agritech, edtech, fintech and emerging sectors such as Industry 4.0, SpaceTech, Web3 and Robotics.


Indian Angel Network (IAN), a platform for seed and young investments, on October 20 said it has launched IAN Alpha Fund, a SEBI-registered (Securities and Exchange Board of India) category two venture capital fund worth Rs 1,000 crore. . IAN said the new fund is the second in its series of funds.

In a statement, IAN said the new fund seeks to invest in cleantech and environment, healthtech, agritech, edtech, fintech and emerging sectors such as Industry 4.0, SpaceTech, Web3 and Robotics. The fund said the size of checks with co-investors would range from $1 to 5 million.

Founded in 2006 by Padmaja Ruparel, Raman Roy and Saurabh Srivastava, IAN helps startups in the country invest in seeding and growing private funds. The network said its portfolio includes high-value startups including Unicorns, Soonicorns and more than 200 other companies.

Ruparel, who is also the Senior Managing Partner of IAN, will head the IAN Alpha Fund. He said, "(With the IAN Alpha Fund) ... we would be willing to invest in innovative ideas that have the potential to generate profits and aim to solve real-world problems."

IAN said the new IAN Alpha Fund will invest in startups with high-quality founders, solving problems for a large client base, rapidly expanding technology and models.

With IAN Alpha Fund, entrepreneurs can access Series A round checks larger than IAN. For us, the idea is to support ventures not only from Tier One cities but also from Tier II and III sectors that are solving real-world problems at scale,” said Vinod Kenny, Managing Partner, IAN Alpha Fund.

The fund said industrial expert Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys; Sunil Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director (MD), Hero Mindmine and Hero Corporate Services; and CP Gurnani, MD and CEO of Tech Mahindra, is part of its advisory board.

IAN said that the investment committee of IAN Alpha Fund includes IAN co-founder Srivastava, who was also the chairman of NASSCOM and IVCA; Ajay Choudhary, founder of HCL; and Praveen Rao, who recently retired from Infosys as Chief Operating Officer.