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Meet the Top 15 Pre-Seed Angel Investors in India

Published on: 08/07/2024

By Aastha Thilwal

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Table Of Contents

Looking for the right angel investors to kickstart your startup journey? In India’s bustling startup funding scene, pre-seed funding is crucial for turning innovative ideas into reality. This blog highlights the top 15 pre-seed stage angel investors in India who are actively investing and shaping the future of new venture capital. Let’s take a look at who’s leading the charge and find the perfect partner to help your startup soar.

Key Takeaways

  • This blog features angel investors in India list focused on the pre-seed stage, where early support can make or break a startup’s journey.

  • Many of these business angels are known for offering more than just seed investment, they provide mentorship, market access and strategic guidance.

  • Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of angel investors helps founders make informed choices about early startup funding.

  • Several names on this list, including prominent angel investors in Bangalore, have deep connections with global venture capital and investor networks.

  • The right investor can unlock doors to equity financing, partnerships and growth opportunities that go far beyond capital.

Sanjay Mehta

Sanjay Mehta, founder of MAIA Intelligence, is a member of the Indian Angel Network group, Venture Nursery, and the Mumbai Angel Network as an investor.

The areas of interest for Sanjay have been social, mobility, analytics, and cloud—all of which emanated from his technology background. He confesses that usually he spends 5-7 years in a startup before looking for exits.
He engages portfolio companies with CIOs and advises them in advertising, PR, branding, and marketing.

Total Number of Investments – 130

Notable investments : Block.one, Oyo Rooms, Box8, WOW Momos, LogiNext, PrettySecrets, RepUp, AdstringO, TagBox, InstaSafe, Unbxd, Coolberg, Mirror-AI ConvertFox

Kunal Bahl

Kunal Bahl is an Indian entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal, an Indian e-commerce firm. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, receiving two bachelor’s degrees in Entrepreneurship, Operations, and Information Management from The Wharton School and Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
He has been one of the early and aggressive investors in Internet firms and has invested in over 150 startups across India, the USA, and Southeast Asia, including unicorns such as Ola, Razorpay, and Urban Company.

Total Number of Investments: 74

Notable investments: Mamaearth, Bewakoof, Invideo, Hike, Lime Chat

Ashish Gupta

Dr. Ashish Gupta is a business owner, consultant, and strategic angel investor. In 2006, he cofounded Helion Advisors, where he now represents Helion Advisors, managing a corpus of $600 million across three funds.
He also serves on the boards of various companies, such as Infoedge, Simplilearn, and Workspot. 
Prior to Helion, he was a venture capital partner at Woodside Fund and founded two companies, Tavant Technologies and Junglee.com, which were ultimately acquired by Amazon. 
He had also worked earlier at Oracle Corporation and IBM. RedBus, Mu Sigma, Daksh (IBM), Upwork (UPWK), MakeMyTrip, and Flipkart are some of the other companies in which he has invested in. 

Total Number of Investments: 52

‍Notable investments: Daksh (IBM), MMYT, MuSigma, UPWK, Flipkart (Walmart) and Perfios.

Anand Chandrasekaran

He is the current director at Facebook and the former product head at Snapdeal. 
He has spent time working for numerous firms, such as Yahoo!, Bharti Airtel, and Wynk. This Stanford alumnus made six angel investments in the year 2017 and twenty in the year 2016. 
He has invested a total of 30 times in the marketplace, to his credit, and he has the distinction of being the most active angel investor in India.

Total Number of Investments: 72

Notable investments: Element5, ByteLearn, BarRaiser, OpsLyft, SalaryBox

Gaurav Munjal

Gaurav Munjal is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Unacademy, India’s largest learning platform. He is also the founder of Flatchat.
Gaurav did his B.Tech. in Computer Science from NMIMS University, Mumbai.
Gaurav Munjal has invested in 32 companies. The latest seed investment that he made is Series A—Trinkerr, which is closing on December 9, 2021. Trinkerr raised a $6.6 million investment from Gaurav Munjal.

Total Number of Investments: 58

‍Notable investments: LightFurry games, BiteSpeed, Emversity, The Kredible

Ritesh Agarwal

Ritesh Agarwal is the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms, an Indian startup. This 27-year-old entrepreneur from Odisha, belonging to a very humble background, has been titled India’s youngest billionaire for the year 2021.

He is also a recipient of the Young Entrepreneur Award from Business World. One of the most admirable traits of Ritesh Agarwal is that he experienced everything fame, success, and money by the age of 25.

He has made a series of early-stage seed investments in consumer, technology, and leisure infrastructure firms.

Total Number of Investments: 27

Notable investments: First Bud Organics, Allter, Coratia, XMACHINES

Mr. Zishaan Hayath

Mr. Zishaan Hayath is the founder and CEO of Toppr.com, an online subject learning platform he founded in 2013. Prior to that, in the year 2008, Mr. Hayath founded ‘Chaupaati.com’, a phone commerce platform through which millions of Indian phone users could buy household appliances, electronics, items for children, and books.

He is an angel investor in some of India’s most exciting startups, be they Olacabs or Housing.com. He has invested in 20 startups across consumer Internet, B2B SaaS, solar, wearables, and QSR.

Total Number of Investments: 21

‍Notable investments: Foreignadmits, ASQI, PazCare, Seekho, Chaayos

Jitendra Gupta

Jitendra is the CEO and Founder of Citrus Pay—India’s top digital payments startup, now acquired by PayU, the Naspers Group, for US$130 million. He has more than 12 years of rich banking and financial services experience and is considered a subject matter expert in the payments business.
Prior to joining Citrus, he spent seven years at ICICI Bank as a member of the bank’s founding team for the retail cross-selling and investment banking businesses.
Jitendra Gupta invested in 46 different companies. Seed Round: Zorro is their most recent investment, which was made on December 9, 2021. Jitendra Gupta put $3.2 million into Zorro.

Total Number of Investments: 68

Notable investments: Sipay, PolicyBoss, Nimbbl, OnePlay

Rohit Bansal

Rohit Bansal is an Indian entrepreneur who, together with his school friend Kunal Bahl, founded Snapdeal in 2007, one of India’s largest e-commerce platforms. He went on to found Titan Capital in 2011 and AceVector in 2022. He was born in Punjab and got his bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.
He has won many awards and recognitions, some of which include BMA Entrepreneur of the Year 2014, ET Top 50 Entrepreneur of India 2014, and so forth. He has been the startup investor of over 91 startups in 2021.
He has primarily invested in consumer products, information technology, manufacturing, payment platforms, real estate, community and lifestyle, and more.

Total Number of Investments: 169

‍Notable investments: Riyalto, Powerplay, Crunch, Flint, Slick

Harshil Mathur

In 2014, along with Shashank Kumar and others, he founded Razorpay Software Private Limited, which is now the most valuable fintech startup. Harshil Mathur, who got his B.Tech. from IIT Roorkee, has often been in the news for investing in new-age startups. He very well understands the challenge of securing the first round of seed capital and, hence, has helped more than one fledgling startup.
He has invested $2.1 million in Volopay, $2 million in Newtown School, and more. He has made a total of 14 investments; the most recent one was Contlo in 2022.

Total Number of Investments: 24

Notable investments: BharatX, Goldsetu, Turnip, Volopay, OneCode

Sandeep Tandon

An alumnus of Harvard University, Sandeep Tandon is the co-founder of mobile wallet FreeCharge and the managing director at Tandon Technology Ventures and Infinix Healthcare.
In 2017, he invested in 23 startups, including online lending platform ZipLoan and fashion store discovery platform Fashalot.

He is quite an active angel investor in the community and a mentor to various technology startups.

Total Number of Investments: 34

Notable investments: Progcap, Indiagold, Raise, BiteSpeed, ZipLoan

Anupam Mittal

Anupam Mittal is the founder and CEO of People Group, the company behind brands such as Shaadi.com, Makaan.com and Mauj Mobile. While best known for his role on Shark Tank India, Anupam has distinguished himself as a deeply strategic angel investor across diverse sectors including consumer internet, fintech and SaaS.

According to recent sources, he has backed over 230 startups, with notable investments in companies like Ola, BigBasket, Rapido, Trell, Interactive Avenues, and WhatFix. These investments reflect his ability to identify early-stage opportunities with high growth potential.

Total Number of Investments: 230+

Notable investments: Ola, BigBasket, Rapido, Trell, Interactive Avenues, WhatFix

Amit Somani

Amit has more than 20 years of experience in the technology and internet sectors. He is deeply engaged with India’s early-stage ecosystem. In his earlier role as Chief Products Officer for MakeMyTrip, Amit led the entire online product portfolio built out of India. 
He was on the management team that helped take the company public on NASDAQ in 2010. Further, he has headed various teams focused on search, mobile, and advertisement products at Google. He brings with him the kind of experience that would make for an ideal portfolio for people looking for an angel investor to invest in budding ventures or startups in India.

Total Number of Investments: 45

Notable investments: MindTickle, The Blue Book, Ixigo

Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the founder and CEO of Paytm. He did his graduation in Electronics and Communications from Delhi College of Engineering, and he knows everything about building great mobile companies. 
He’s very well-connected, and if the prospect of angel investment is there, he will be as much a fan of your business angel as you are. Highly recommended as an advisor and investor, his expertise, industry knowledge, and resources can scale your enterprise with new ideas and capital support.

Total Number of Investments: 63

‍Notable investments: TechEagle, Hustle Energy Drink, Crib, Radiohead Brands 

Sachin Bansal

Sachin Bansal served Techspan for a few months before joining Amazon.com India as a senior software engineer in 2006. Sachin and Binny initially thought of starting a comparison search engine but soon realized that the market for e-commerce in India was very small.
Hence, after leaving Amazon in 2007, they founded Flipkart as an e-commerce company. Coming from a phase of struggling for investments himself, his role as an angel investors in bangalore didn’t surprise the world. He went on to invest in more than 14 startups and budding firms in the days to come. So, if you’re looking for someone with a passionate approach to turn your idea into reality, Sachin Bansal can be that hand.

Total Number of Investments: 35

Notable investments: Ola, Grey Orange, Ather Energy, SigTuple, IN shorts, Unacademy, and Terminus.

To Sum Up

Finding the right angel investors for startups in india can make a big difference for your startup. The 15 pre-seed stage investors listed in this blog are actively investing in new ideas and providing crucial early support. Their involvement can help you get your business off the ground and set it up for future success.
As you start your entrepreneurial journey, consider reaching out to these investors. Their experience and connections can help you improve your business plan, attract more startup funding, and grow your startup. Each investor has unique expertise that could be just what you need.

In summary, connecting with these top angel investors in India list can be a game-changer. Their support can help turn your startup dreams into reality. Explore these opportunities and take the next step towards building a successful business.

Must read: Angel Investors Vs Pre-Seed Venture Capital Firms

To Sum Up

What is the role of angel investors in the pre-seed stage?

In the pre-seed stage, angel investors provide early funding to help startups turn ideas into workable products or services. Along with seed investment, they often offer guidance, industry connections, and operational support.

How do I choose the right angel investor for my startup?

Look for investors whose expertise and network align with your industry. Reviewing a trusted angel investors in India list can help you identify backers with relevant experience and strong investor networks.

Are there advantages and disadvantages of angel investors?

Yes. Advantages include quick access to funding, mentorship, and industry contacts. Disadvantages can involve giving up equity and possible differences in vision between founder and investor.

Are there many angel investors in Bangalore?

Yes, angel investors in Bangalore are among the most active in India, thanks to the city’s vibrant tech ecosystem, deep pool of talent, and strong startup funding culture.

Can angel investors connect me to venture capital firms later?

Many business angels have links with venture capital firms, private equity players, and other investment funds, which can help secure larger rounds of funding as your business grows.

Aastha Thilwal

Communication Manager

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Aastha supports investor relations and brand communication with a strategic approach and keen attention to detail. She ensures transparency and alignment, keeping all communications in sync with the company’s goals.
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