Bharat Powering Indian Startups Growth

THAT THE INDIAN startup ecosystem has been growing in leaps and bounds is a well-accepted fact. That the startups have been solving for many consumer challenges, and have brought in ease of usage, the convenience of the solutions, and at a lower cost of access to the consumers is also well-known. While we agree on the disruptive power of the digital revolution, and consumer acceptance of digital businesses, a fact that's been missed out is the involvement of angel investors from non-metro India.

- Srinath Sridharan

The Indian startup sector has been going through a metamorphosis. While of late, one hears of an investing winter, what has been a silent shift over the past few quarters is the rise of angel investors beyond major cities. This also helps shatter the myth that startups are all about urban consumers, urban investors, and address only English-speaking consumers.

Local Angel investing

Angel investors are individuals who offer initial funding to startup ideas for a share of equity. The first funding of such ventures is seed funding. Angel investors do invest at the idea stage or if the business has started and needs further investment to stabilize (where in such situations, typically the founders have put in the initial capital from their savings, and from their families and friends). Angel investors usually fund the business, after the original funding is in place but before a company requires a more sizable investment from a venture capital company. Angel investment is needed to grow a company from its early stage of development, to demonstrate business viability for the next round of funding. Angel investors (can) play a vital role in mentoring the founders, and can be a strategic sounding board to the core venture team.

In the last few years, startups have not just built their consumer offerings for urban pockets, but also for the rest of India. More keenly, the domestic capital for some of these investments is not coming just from ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNIS) or high net-worth individuals (HNIS) in the top ten cities. They are also coming in from investors in tier-2 and tier- 3 cities. India ranks third globally in the startup ecosystem, after the Unites States and China.