At a time when the general sentiment among angel investors remains “fearful” as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, Inflection Point Ventures has made angel investments in five start-ups during the lockdown, with six more in the pipeline.
“We have invested ₹20 crore in five start-ups — Milkbasket (online grocery), Toch (mediatech), Phable (healthtech), Pedagogy (edtech) and FabBox (F&B) — during the past 45 days of the lockdown, and will be investing ₹10-12 crore in six start-ups in the next two weeks. We provide both monetary and non-monetary support to the start-ups, as well as complete transparency and risk management for our investors,” Vinay Bansal, co-founder and CEO, Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) , told BusinessLine .
He said IPV follows a stringent five-stage evaluation process before investing in a start-up. “It is a commonly known fact that 95 per cent of start-ups fail. We studied the reasons for failure, and have come up with a foolproof methodology for selecting start-ups to invest in. I am proud to say that not a single start-up in our portfolio of 35 start-ups has fallen flat on its face in the last 18 months.”
IPV is a sector-agnostic, digital-first angel-investing platform that connects a network of over 1,600 investors including leading angels, CXOs (chief experience officers), HNIs (high networth individuals), family offices and working professionals with a curated set of start-ups. Co-founded 18 months ago by Bansal, Ankur Mittal and Mitesh Shah with the vision to democratise angel investing, IPV has over 150 first-time angels on its platform, from 21 different sectors, with the average investment per investor at ₹10 lakh.
Investing smart
Pointing out that the general sentiment for angel investments in 2020 will continue to remain fearful, Bansal said: “Smart investors who are not guided by fear or greed will be able to make good investments in some very good start-ups. While other investors have slowed down on funding start-ups, we have aggressively invested in start-ups in March/April/May and will continue to do so as we seize the opportunity to fund good start-ups with great founders and teams. Flipkart invested in great talent at reasonable CTCs during the 2008-2009 recession and went on to build a highly valued company that got acquired by Walmart.”
IPV has invested a total of ₹95 crore in 35 start-ups, at an average investment of ₹75 lakh-1.4 crore per start-up, in the last 18 months, and has added 400 investors to its network in the last 30 days.
Asked what has attracted the investors to the platform, Bansal said: “Real estate as an asset class has not grown in the last 7-8 years; the stock market hasn’t delivered in the last five years. People want to invest in an asset class that promises good returns, and are turning to start-ups as they have seen, first hand, the wealth creation in private markets for investors by start-ups like Flipkart, Ola and Swiggy, to name a few.”
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