Excl: Madurai-based Nativelead launches angels network, invests in Rainstock & FreshNV

Madurai-based Nativelead Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that works towards new-age entrepreneurship development in tier II & III regions, has launched Native Angels Network (NAN), a region-focused investment network.

NAN has made investments in two startups to begin with including Rainstock that works on introducing rain water harvesting systems and gray water recycling to address water needs of Madurai region, and FreshNV.com, an e-commerce platform for fresh meat.

Nagaraja Prakasam, chairman of NAN, told VCCircle/Techcircle.in that the network has already received commitments from 15 individuals including R Dinesh, joint managing director of TVS & Sons and chief mentor of Nativelead Foundation; and T Kannan, managing director of Thiagaraja Mills (Madurai).

"We will invest in the range of Rs 5-25 lakh each in 20-25 ventures over the next 12 months," said Prakasam, who is also a member of Indian Angel Network.

Launched in 2012, Nativelead Foundation has been working to promote entrepreneurship in Madurai. The foundation will function as the platform to identify and nurture potential business ideas and refer the same to angel investors of NAN.

"We are overwhelmed by the response from angels in the region and looking to have around 40 angles in NAN in the next six months," said R Sivarajah, founder of Nativelead.

Prakasam has invested in 11 ventures that include Stayzilla and Uniphore. Another key person behind NAN is K Pandiarajan, who is also the founding member of Chennai Angels & TIE Chennai.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)