We Founder Circle, a platform for angel investors, is wooing high networth individuals (HNIs) from the smaller towns of India into its fold. The community, with 6500 investors last year, has grown to 10,000-plus investors in 2023 indicating that startups continue to be a viable asset class despite the prolonged funding winter worldwide.
“We are a community of 10,000-plus investors today. I have travelled to 43 cities in India this year meeting the investor community from small towns and cities, educating people about this asset class — startups. They have shown interest in investing anything from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 1 crore. These are people from tier 2, 3 and 4 towns,” says Gaurav VK Singhvi, co-founder of We Founder Circle.
“Whether it is Bhilwara, Erode, Bilaspur or Siliguri, there are many individuals in these smaller towns who only need to be shown the investment opportunities.”
Singhvi says the ultimate objective is to broad-base early-stage investing. As he says, the investing community “need not be confined to London, Dubai or Singapore or the metros of India” but can be based out of tier 2, 3 and 4 towns. “As a result of our efforts, more than 50% of the investors in our community hail from these towns. This statistic is indicative of the positive transformation occurring in Bharat,” he says.
Since April 2023, We Founder Circle’s angel fund on its investment platform invstt.com has attracted active participation from more than 600 investors, contributing to a total fund commitment exceeding $25 million. The platform, which focuses on early-stage startups, is expecting 100-110 investment deals by the end of this year, having closed 53 deals till now (Garuda Aerospace, Rooter, Blu Smart, Evify, Soptle and Pee Safe are among these) with investment of over $20 million. For 2024, the expectation is 200 deals.
We Founder Circle has also tasted success with its new $30-million GIFT City Fund, structured as a cross-border fund. “The Gift City Fund is for both inbound and outbound investment — foreign investors evaluating Indian companies, Indians looking at investment options abroad, overseas investors including NRIs and PIOs who want to invest in other countries,” says Singhvi. “We are the only one with this kind of fund and in the last three months have invested more than $5 million through the Gift City Fund. Among the startups we have funded are Pixxel ($1.5 million) besides Garuda Aerospace and Trading League. Six more deals are in the pipeline.”
Over the last 30 months, WFC has conducted master classes in 50 cities across the hinterland for educating investors and founders on early-stage investing, portfolio approach, capital allocation strategies, asset class management, etc. It also organises ‘startup mixers’ in universities located in tier 2, tier 3, and tier 4 cities. By bringing together aspiring startup founders and investors from these regions, it facilitates networking opportunities. This approach of nurturing founders and educating investors has had a significant impact on its community. “Around 35% of our startups are in tier 2 and 3 cities. These startups sought funding of Rs 2 crore to Rs 15 crore,” he says.
WFC has supported over 150 startups including Oben, Zypp, Evify and Kazam (all-electric mobility startups), agritech startups Growit and Humus, healthcare startups Ayushpay and Yogify, and fintechs YPay, Microfinance and Banksathi.
TAKING A BET
We Founder Circle has closed 53 deals in 2023
Its Invstt Trust Fund supports startups in their pre-seed, seed, series A, and series B stages
The Evolvex programme offers campus seed funding to startup founders in their university years
Invstt app eases investing process from discovery, evaluation, transactions to portfolio management