IAN Fund raises $53 million to back seed and early stage startups

Indian Angel Network (IAN), the country’s largest organised angel network, closed its maiden seed and early stage fund at about $53 million (Rs 375 crore). Dubbed, IAN Fund, it exceeded its target of about $50 million (Rs 350 crore). 

Limited partners or investors in the fund include SIDBI’s Fund of Funds for startups, IIFL, Wadhwani Foundation, Gray Matters Capital, as well as individuals such as Infosys founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, former Google India chief Rajan Anandan, and Mphasis founder Jerry Rao, IAN said in a statement.  

The investments from the sector agnostic fund will help close the funding gap in India’s early stage market. Investments from the fund will include startups in healthcare and medical devices, VR (virtual reality), AI (artificial intelligence), SaaS (software as a service), marketplaces, fintech, big data, agritech and hardware.

The fund achieved a first close about three years ago at Rs 175 crore and deployed capital in over 34 companies including Nocca Robotics, cleantech firm Chakr Innovation, student education financing platform Propelld, local discovery company LBB among others. 

IAN Fund exited Bengaluru based logistics company TagBox with 3X returns.

“The fact that we have achieved and exceeded our capital target underlines our impressive growth trajectory and highlights the faith that investors have in our vision. Moving ahead, we aim to scale newer heights and play a bigger role in transforming and nurturing India’s entrepreneurial landscape,” Padmaja Ruparel, founding partner of IAN Fund, said.

The statement also said that entrepreneurs can raise anywhere from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 25 crore from the angel network and the fund.

There has been an increased interest in early stage investments in India with several homegrown venture capital firms raising India funds this year. These include Inventus Capital which recently announced the final close of its Rs 369 crore Fund III Business to business focused seed fund Endiya Partners announced the first close of its Rs 280 crore fund in May while India Quotient said it will raise Rs 300 crore in an add-on fund.