Tata Sons’ chairman emeritus Ratan Tata and former Infosys CFO TV Mohandas Pai were India’s top angel investors by the number of disclosed investments they made in the last 12 months, as per VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle.
Both Tata and Pai picked up stakes in 18 startups this year.
While Tata invested in firms such as Crayon Data, UrbanClap and KAARYAH, Pai added Gingercrush, Licious, OnlineTyari and other consumer tech firms to his portfolio.
Rajan Anandan, Google chief for India and Southeast Asia, and Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal were the other top angels backing 15 ventures each.
Interestingly, five of the top 10 angel investors are entrepreneurs themselves, indicating how the startup world is maturing with a self-sustaining support system.
Notably, several angel investment deals are not made public and hence any listing of such investors need to be taken with a pinch of salt.