Online fundraising platform AngelList has launched its first venture and angel fund product in India. The Silicon Valley-based facilitator helps start-ups and individuals to raise small blind pools from `2-8 crore and deploy the capital over next six to twelve months.
The launch comes six months after the platform began its first India-dedicated fund. “This (platform) will allow experienced operator angels to write larger and faster cheques into more competitive deals,” AngelList said while announcing the launch, adding that the platform will help small entrepreneurs and businesses raise offer funds without legal or regulatory hassles.
“It’s fully managed by technology and it’s the first time an individual can raise funds without the legal, or regulatory hassles,” said Utsav Somani, partner at AngelList. The platform was first conceptualised by the organisation in the United States a few years earlier and has seen over half of all investments on its platform driven by angel and venture funds.
According to reports, while AngelList will manage the legal and regulatory aspects of raising capital and investing it, the small funds will be able to use the technology platform to manage their investments. The company will charge a 5 per cent fee for its services.
Industry sources say that there are already funds hosted on the platform, such as First Cheque, an early-stage investment fund backed by several successful start-up founders. Another angel fund hosted on the platform is one founded by the alumni from Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode. AngelList is focusing on tapping alumni associations of top business and technical institutions to widen its net of funders.
The firm also says that angel and venture funds using its platform will also be able to supplement the investments of its own fund called The Collective. Till date, AngelList India claims to have launched over six funds focused on angel investments, all of which have begun making start-up investments.
strong backing for the collective
The big-ticket names that back AngelList’s own fund, The Collective, includes Binny Bansal, Matrix Partners’ Avnish Bajaj, Salil Deshpande of Bain Capital Ventures, Tarun Davda, Vikram Vaidyanathan, Navroz Udwadia (Falcon Edge Capital), Rahul Mehta (DST Global) and funds like Kalaari Capital, FJ Labs, and Beenext, among others.