Dec 15, 2021
The Top 30 Venture Capitalist Firms for Early-Stage Startups in India
In this post, we have discussed some of the prominent VCs who invest in early and growth-stage startups in India.
Angel investors are high-net-worth individuals who invest in early-stage startups, mostly via convertible notes. The benefit of taking investment from angel investors is that these rounds close faster than priced rounds. In addition to funding, angel investors help startups with mentoring, connections, and domain knowledge.
There are many angel investors in the Indian startup ecosystem, with reports suggesting the number of angel investors in India stands to be 6000 approx. Shortlisting the right investors among the 6000 is tedious with so many investors. We have made it easy for you by listing India’s top 25 angel investors who actively invest in startups.
Typically, angel investors have domain preferences—some invest in the consumer segment, while others prefer healthcare or education. Here, we have curated the top angel investors based on their total investment deals.
Kunal Shah is a popular angel investor who is the founder of Cred, one of the fastest-growing Indian fintech companies. Earlier, he also co-founded Freecharge, a payment gateway platform, along with Sandeep Tandon in 2010. Recently, he invested in the fintech startup Drona Pay, which uses machine learning technologies to detect and tackle payment frauds.
Major Investment Domains: Consumer Internet, Fintech, Health Tech, Edtech, Coworking Spaces, E-commerce
Key Investments: Razorpay, Unacademy, ShaadiSaga, Drona Pay, Cookifi, Innov8 Coworking, Bharat Bazaar
No. of Investments: 200+
No. of Exits: 9+
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Gokul Rajaram currently serves as the Product and Business Helper at DoorDash. He was an ex-product director at Facebook. He majorly funds technology startups. Recently, he has joined Noida-based Pine Labs as an advisor. In Nov 2021, he funded the employee management fintech startup SalaryBox.
Major Domains of Investment: Internet Services, Analytics & AI, Media & Entertainment, SaaS
Key Investments: SalaryBox, LivSpace, Daily.co, Buffer, Flipora, Loop, Whatfix, Edu Fire
No. of Investments: 110+
No. of Exits: 5
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn
Rajan Anandan is one of the popular angel investors in India who currently serves as the managing director of Sequoia Capital. He prefers to invest in B2B startups. Additionally, Rajan is also the co-founder of the first seed fund of Sri Lanka, Blue Ocean Ventures.
Major Domains of Investment: SaaS, Big Data, Analytics, Healthcare
Key Investments: Pregbuddy, Unacademy, TravelKhana
No: of Investments: 83+
No: of Exits: 12
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Binny Bansal founded Flipkart along with his partner Sachin Bansal. He currently serves as the Co-founder and Executive Chairman of xto10x Technologies, a tech company that offers a learning platform to scale up startups. As an angel investor, he has invested in more than 60 startups to date. At present, he is also an anchor investor for the firm 021 Capital. Recently, Gurgaon based wellness platform Mindhouse saw an investment of $6 million from Binny Bansal.
Major Domains of Investment: Consumer Internet, Online Commerce, Health Tech, Fintech, E-commerce
No. of Investments: 47+
No. of Exits: 2
Key Investments: Mindhouse, CureFit, Inshorts, Roposo, GreyOrange, Sigtuple
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Anupam Mittal is the Founder and CEO at People Group. He is popular for starting the successful venture Shaadi.com. Anupam has more than 50 investments to his credit. He focuses more on technology startups, be it the health sphere, or consumer internet.
Major Domains of Investment: Co-working spaces, Healthcare, Consumer Internet, SaaS, Real estate
Key Investments: BigBasket, Ola Cabs, Druva, Animall, Pretty Secrets
No. of Investments: 55+
No. of Exits: 11
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn , Twitter
Ramakant Sharma is presently the Founder and CEO at Livspace. With a rich experience of 11 years in the software products domain, he has invested in more than 50 startups to date. Previously, Ramakant was also associated with popular companies like Myntra, JungleVentures, and GE Healthcare. In Oct 2021, Ramakant Sharma invested in the online coding platform Masai School.
Major Domains of Investment: SaaS, Ecommerce, Real Estate, Fintech
Key Investments: Masai School, PharmEasy, CoinSwitch, Zooty, Fynd, Shop101, ZunRoof, TruckMandi
No. of Investments: 53+
No. of Exits: 1
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Ratan Tata is one of India’s most popular industrialists and philanthropists. The former chairman of Tata Industries has funded over 50 startups. Tata Trust, set up in 2017 functions as a business incubator as well as a social impact fund. The fund has invested in more than two dozen businesses.
Major Domains of Investment: Technology Sector, E-commerce
Key Investments: Xiaomi, Snapdeal, UrbanClap, Crayon Data, MadRat Games, DogSpot, Invictus Oncology, Printline Media(ThePrint)
No. of Investments: 40+
No. of Exits: 6
Social Media Profile: Twitter
Kunal Bahl is the co-founder of 2 major companies Snapdeal and Titan Capital. Titan Capital is a VC firm supporting entrepreneurs with mentorship and capital. This firm has supported more than 150 startups in India, South-East Asia, and the US. Bahl largely invests in technology startups.
Major Domains of Investment: Online Travel, Transport, Enterprise Services, Edtech, Logistics, Fintech, Healthtech, Ecommerce
Key Investments: CredR, OlaCabs, UrbanClap, RazorPay
No. of Investments: 57+
No. of Exits: 5+
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Anand Chandrasekharan is the present Executive Vice-President at Five9. Formerly, he has worked with major companies like Snapdeal (as Chief Product Officer), Facebook (Director of Messenger Platform), Bharti Airtel, and Yahoo. He has invested in more than 50 companies—Mudrex, the crypto firm being his latest investment.
Major Domains of Investment: Fintech, SaaS, B2C, Consumer Internet
Key Investments: Mudrex,, Fynd, NoBroker, Wooplr
No. of Investments: 70+
No. of Exits: 4
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the CEO and founder of Paytm. At present, Paytm has over 400 million users, and they make daily transactions to the tune of 25 million. With immense experience in the telecom domain, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has more than 40 investments to his name. His latest investment is in Healofy.
Major Domains of Investment: Consumer Internet, Ed-Tech, FinTech
Key Investments: GOQii, Flyrobe, The Ken, Milaap, InnerChef
No. of Investments: 44+
No. of Exits: 7
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Girish Mathrubootham is the CEO and founder of India’s top customer support provider, Freshworks. Mathrubootham likes to invest in customer-centric products and technologies.
Major Domains of Investment: SaaS, Content & Listing Platforms, Consumer Internet, Education, Enterprise Software, Customer support
Key Investments: Go Bumpr, Zarget, Unacademy, and Inkmonk
No. of Investments: 34+
No. of Exits: 6+
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Alok Mittal is the Co-founder and CEO of Indifi, a platform for debt financing for MSMEs. Mittal is also a founding board member of Indian Angel Network, an angel investor group that focuses on early-stage startups. Previously, he was also associated with the venture capital firm Canaan Partners, Baring Private Equity Partners, and JobsAhead.
Major Domains of Investments: Consumer Services, Transport, Healthtech, Edtech, Fintech
Key Investments: Bite Club, Cuelearn, Drivezy, Baxi-Fresh, Wysa, LifCare, Touchkin
No. of Investments: 25+
No. of Exits: 2
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Company Website: https://www.indifi.com/
Dheeraj Jain is a famous angel investor in the healthcare sector. He is the founder of Redcliffe Life Diagnostics and Crystal IVF, two major companies in the healthcare domain. Previously, he has also been associated with companies like Nokia and Fujitsu. At present, he is the director of PeeSafe, a venture focused on women’s health.
Major Domains of Investment: AI, Virtual reality, Big data analytics, Healthcare, Internet of Things, Biotechnology
Key Investments: Mappr, Shaadisaga, Qdesq, Deyor Camps, Yumlane
No. of Investments: 20+
No. of Exits: 1
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn
T.V. Mohandas Pai is a well-known personality in the Indian business ecosystem. During his tenure as the Chief Financial Officer of Infosys, the company has won numerous awards for the Infosys Annual Report. Notably, he is on the board of the National Stock Exchange of India pertaining to the security market in India. He prefers to invest in technology startups.
Major Domains of Investment: Technology startups, Media, Consumer internet
Key Investments: Zoomcar, YourStory, FairCent, Licious, SwitchMe, TaxSutra
No. of Investments: 28+
No. of Exits: 4+
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Sanjay Mehta is the Founder & Partner at 100X.VC. He is the only angel investor in India with four unicorns under his belt: Oyo, CoinDCX, Block.One and AXIOM Space. Sanjay is also a member of the Indian Angel Network & Mumbai Angel network. His core investment areas have been analytics & cloud, consumer services, and the automotive domain.
Major Domains of Investment: Automotive, Blockchain, EdTech, FinTech, Enterprise B2B and Consumer Internet sectors, AgriTech
Key Investments: Loginext, OYO, Box8, Fab Alley
No. of Investments: 16+
No. of Exits: 2+
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Personal Website: mehtaventures.co/
Sachin Bansal is one of the founding members of Flipkart. At present, he is the chairman of the financial services company Navi. This firm aims to make financial services simple and affordable for the masses. Since 2014, Sachin has invested in early-stage startups.
Major Domains of Investment: Edtech, Entertainment Tech, Healthtech, Transport, Consumer Services, Hardware & IoT
Key Investments: Ola Cabs, GreyOrange, Inshorts, Tracxn, Unacademy, Ola Electric, Milkbasket
No. of Investments: 213+
No. of Exits: 1
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Amit Gupta is the Co-founder and CEO of Yulu and previously co-founded InMobi. Yulu uses IoT technology to create the next-generation green bikes. In contrast, InMobi uses mobile intelligence and the marketing cloud to engage brands and consumers. Amit is not sector-specific as an angel investor and mentors entrepreneurs belonging to different domains.
Major Domains of Investment: Not Sector Specific
Key Investments: Razorpay, MyChild, Wooplr, BharatBazaar, HealthifyMe
No. of Investments: 17+
No. of Exits: 1
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Mekin Maheshwari is the founder of Udhyam.org, which aims to empower the next generation of students through innovative learning models. He is also the co-founder of the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) which aims to enhance the creation of entrepreneurial jobs. Mekin was also associated with the popular company Flipkart as its Chief People Officer. As an angel investor, he invests in technology startups and social enterprises.
Major Domains of Investment: Entertainment Tech, Edtech, Online Travel, Ecommerce, Healthtech
Key Investments: Aisle, Docwise, Purple Quarter, TapChief, Urban Clap, Hansel.io
No. of Investments: 11+
No. of Exits: 3+
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Sunil Kalra is a Venture Partner at Stride Ventures. Sunil Kalra is an independent investor who has around 20 investments to his credit. His major interest area lies in the technology sector.
Major Domains of Investment: Technology, Health & Finance sectors.
Key investments: Hasti Dry Port, Exclusively.in Jigsee, Viavya Labs, Innovise, MyShaadi.in
No. of Investments: 14+
No. of Exits: 3+
Sandeep Tandon is one of the founding members of FreeCharge, a mobile wallet for making financial transactions. He is also a member of renowned organizations like CRED, IIFL Investment Managers, and Iron Pillar. He is an active angel investor with 19 investments to his credit.
Major Domains of Investment: Healthcare, Education, FinTech, Media, Information Technology
Key Investments: Inc42, Unacademy, Remitware Payments, Pocket Aces, Ziploan
No. of Investments: 19+
No. of Exits: 3+
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Personal Website: tandongroup.com
Ritesh Malik is a doctor turned entrepreneur who is currently the Founder and Trustee at Plaksha. Also, he is the founder of innov8 Coworking, India’s workspace brand for entrepreneurs. As a philanthropist, Ritesh Malik has founded many companies like ADIF (Architects of Digital India) and hospital Radix.
Major Domains of Investment: Robotics, Nanotechnology, HealthTech, SAAS
Key Investments: Safe Securities, Sattviko, Josh Talks, Inc42, Dukaan.IO
No. of Investments: 60+
No. of Exits: 2
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn
Personal Website: https://www.drriteshmalik.com/
Amit Ranjan is another well-known angel investor who invests in early-stage startups in the US, India, and Singapore. He is currently working as an architect with the National Digital Locker Project under the union ministry of information technology (IT). As a mentor to multiple startups, Amit is also an advisor to AngelList India.
Major Domains of Investment: Not Sector Specific
Key Investments: Tracxn, Wishberry, Pepper, Yulu
No. of Investments: 15+
No. of Exits: 4+
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn
Personal Website: https://www.webyantra.com/contact-amit-ranjan/
Zishaan Hayath is the founder and CEO of Toppr.com, a personalized learning app for classes 5th - 12th. Previously, he has worked with organizations like Futurebazaar.com, Chaupaati Bazaar, Opera Solutions, and ITC Limited. As an angel investor, Zishaan has invested in famous companies like Housing.com and Olacabs.
Major Domains of Investment: Ed Tech, SaaS
Key Investments: Olacabs, Shadowfax, Wealthy, Qyk, AdPushup, Housing.com
No. of Investments: 14+
No. of Exits: 4+
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Aneesh Reddy is the co-founder and CEO of Asia’s leading SaaS product company Capillary Technologies. He has previously worked as the assistant manager at ITC Limited. As a featured entrepreneur, his name finds mention in leading magazines like Forbes, The EconomicTimes, and Harvard Business Review. As a global retail expert, he works with product teams across India.
Major Domains of Investment: Not Sector Specific
Key Investments: Skillenza, Whatflix, JustLikeNew
No. of Investments: 10+
No. of Exits: 1
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn
Sharad Sharma is the co-founder of the iSPIRIT foundation, and he is also a board member at the Indian Angel Network. He has rich experience in enterprise software, infrastructure market, and internet technologies.
Major Domains of Investment: Software ecosystem
Key Investments: Wishberry, Minjar, Vebbler
No. of Investments: 11
No. of Exits: 3
Social Media Profile: LinkedIn, Twitter
Choosing the right angel investor can be a laborious process that can take months of analysis. You may connect and engage with your target angel investors on LinkedIn and Twitter. Their recent investments announcements and regular posts may indicate their investment habits.
Communicating and building relationships can take time but it's better to do it well before you need the investment. You can leverage these relations in future when you are looking for angel investments.
Disclaimer: We have taken data from Crunchbase, CB Insights, Pitchbook, and MoneyControl for investment numbers and exit deals. Since the numbers vary across these platforms, we have taken the lower limit for the number of deals.
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