As venture capitalists bet big on Indian start-ups, the early-stage investors are making hay.
According to industry sources, in the past couple of years, VC investments have been increasing, which, in turn, provides exit routes to angels with returns ranging from five to 15 times.
Apart from the growing VC activity, increase in mergers and acquisitions and entry of corporate venture funds looking at Indian start-ups are other major factors providing exit for angel investors.
Indian Angel Network (IAN), one of the oldest and largest angel-investor networks, has so far invested in around 70 ventures in sectors such as agriculture, e-commerce, education, financial services, healthcare, mobile and social impact.
“Unlike VCs, we don’t invest huge sums in companies. Our investments are done at an early stage at high-risk. With the increase in venture-capital funding, we are seeing good number of exits,” said IAN co-founder Saurabh Srivastava.In the last two years, IAN has funded over 40 deals, investing close to $25 million.
Out of the total investment, it has so far exited around ten investments. Some of them are: Druva, Stayzilla, Webengage, Peel-Works, Karmic Life Sciences.
Mumbai Angels, which focuses primarily on technology companies, felt that the growing VC and merger and acquisitions activities were fuelling exits. Mumbai Angels, which invests in the range of $100,000 to $500,000, has so far invested in around 75 companies.
“The VCs are bullish about Indian start-ups, and have increased focus on India. We have exited around 15 investments and most of our exits are through a Series A or Series B round of funding,” said Mumbai Angels Associate VP Ashpi Gupta.
