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Every day, 80 new startups are registered in India on the Startup India platform. And even despite several crushing waves of the pandemic, 2021 was a year in which the number of new startups launched increased for the first time in several years with 1,436 new startups entering the market. 

Plus the record amount of ESOP buybacks in 2021 and till May 2022 (nearly totalling $500 Mn) have also created wealth for a number of startup employees, who have then gone on to start their entrepreneurial journeys. Today, India is home to close to 60K startups, out of which around 40K are active and building.

And as the number of startups has grown, so has the volume of angel investors that are backing them in the early stages. Besides individual angels who have been investing in startups for decades, the angel investor pool now also includes unicorn and startup founders, celebrities from the entertainment and sporting worlds, and C-level executives from corporate giants. 

We are talking about the likes of Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Kunal Shah, Amrish Rau; celebrities such as MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt and serial investors like Ritesh Malik, Sanjay Mehta, Rajesh Sawhney, Rajan Anandan, among others. But the opportunity is open for just about anyone with some amount of wealth to invest.

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Spotlight On Angel Investing

With Shark Tank India bringing angel investing to the mainstream discussions, backing startups is no longer an unknown quantity for the average Indian. What might be a mystery is how to get started and how to build the angel investment portfolio in the right direction. 

Becoming an angel investor undoubtedly requires a deep understanding of the technology, innovations and the startup lifecycle, but the most important element is planning for the long term and taking the portfolio approach, according to several angel investors that Inc42 has spoken to over the past few months.  

And we wanted to distil these learnings down to make it easier for anyone to become an angel investor. The culmination of this is AngelX by Inc42 – a four-week learning journey with India’s most active and successful angel investors guiding inexperienced investors and novices in the A to Z of angel investments. 

And at the end of the four weeks, everyone in the programme will also have the opportunity to make their first investment in the startup ecosystem.

What Is AngelX? 

AngelX By Inc42 is a weekends-only course, spanning eight sessions led by over 15 angel investors from the Indian startup ecosystem. It aims to bridge the knowledge gap that inexperienced and unfamiliar investors might have when starting their angel journey. 

The interactive sessions — roughly 120 to 180 minutes each — will be a mix of open talks, mentoring sessions, masterclasses as well as networking opportunities. All participants in the programme will also get the chance to be part of a demo day and potentially invest in startups. 

From the building blocks of an angel investment thesis, horizon setting to portfolio management hacks, to driving deal flow, evaluating pitches and models, and finally managing returns and exits — the AngelX course is designed for absolute novices to the world of angel investments. 

As PEs and VC firms take a step back due to the ‘funding winter’ and the global slowdown, angel investors are fuelling the innovation that will make a huge impact in the next couple of years. To keep up with the rapidly changing ecosystem, Inc42 has brought together the greatest of angel investors such as Sanjay Mehta, Ritesh Malik, Rajesh Sawhney and others.

AngelX By Inc42: Eligibility Criteria 

We wanted to keep the AngelX course open to everyone who wants to become an angel investor. There are no prerequisites for joining the course, and there will be no specific sector focus. 

The idea is to get the participants to network with their peers, build meaningful connections and understand how deal flow happens in the real world.

We are also adding some essential elements such as a due diligence toolkit, examples of pitch decks, and a cheat sheet for deal negotiations to help our future angel investors make the right decisions. 

Why Be An Angel Investor? 

As Ritesh Malik, the founder of Innov8 and an angel investor in over 80 startups puts it, this is the best time to be an angel investor in the country. 

“India’s tech industry is growing at say 300% to 400% year on year. Technology adoption is going to be huge by 2028. So in just six years, everything will be technology-based and we will see such high demand for technology products which will be catered by startups primarily. And you should tap this space right now.”

Besides this, other investors such as Sanjay Mehta believe that angel investments will bring over 7x-8x returns of what an investor makes in a mutual fund over a similar tenure. 

The opportunity for angel investors is great, but the resources needed to help them unlock this value are lacking. AngelX by Inc42 is looking to fill this massive gap and enable ordinary individuals to become a part of the driving force of the startup ecosystem. 

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