The first part of this article consists of an academic note which serves as a background for the round table discussion on “Angel investments in India: Trends, Prospects and Issues”. It describes the investment activity of individual angels and angel networks, presents an illustration of how angel networks differ from individual or lone wolf angels in terms of the way they are organised and the way they conduct their investment activity, and then provides data on angel investment trends in India over the past fifteen years. It notes that the number of enterprises funded by angel investors has been growing in India over the past fifteen years, and sharply so in the three years up to 2016 that angel networks have been growing in importance, and that their activity is reaching levels that should catch the attention of policy planners. It thus sets a backdrop, based on academic and practitioner literature, for a discussion on the current state of the angel investment industry in India.
The panel at the round table discussion featured a group of stakeholders, which included Shanti Mohan, Founder, LetsVenture, an online platform for intermediating angel investment; R. Narayanan, who runs a micro venture advisory firm Nett10 and is also an active angel investor in Chennai Angels, a regional network; Nagaraja Prakasam, angel investor, mentor, fund advisor, now mentor in residence at the NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at IIM Bangalore; Rajiv Rao, Founder and CEO, FreshWorld; and Padmaja Ruparel, Co-Founder & President, Indian Angel Network. The discussion was anchored by Professor G. Sabarinathan of IIM Bangalore.
The panel members presented their perspectives on angel investing and the start-up ecosystem based on their experience, discussed the developments in the space, including the different approaches of individual angels, angel groups and venture capitalists, the forward looking trends and the key policy changes that could support angel investors, start-ups, and the entrepreneurial space.
