We Founder Circle, a founders-led early-stage startup investment platform, on Thursday said it plans to invest as much as $25 million in 70 startups this year.
The average ticket size of a deal will be around $150,000, the angel network’s spokesperson told VCCircle.
The Mumbai-based platform backed 33 startups in 2021 at a combined valuation of $300 million. It also claims to be the second-largest early-stage investor in India.
Founded in 2020, We Founder Circle says it is a global community of founders and angels that help early-stage startups.
It claims to invest around $50000- $150000 (around Rs 37 lakh- Rs 1 crore) in early-stage startups.
The angel network claims that with mentorship from the angel investors on its platform, the companies that it had backed, have witnessed 25% month-on-month growth on average.
We Founder Circle has invested in Zypp, Settl, Vidyakul, Glamyo Health, Geekster, YPay, Kazam, nestroots, CUSMAT, Humus, Flatheads, OBEN EV, Zoviane Pets, among other startups.
“The idea is to fuel early-stage startups, not just with the financial support, but also the right investor who can mentor them through the early journey and struggle. The pandemic has raised the very question of survival for many, including early-stage start-ups. Also, we plan to go double in the next year in terms of portfolio,” said Neeraj Tyagi, Co-Founder and Chief Exeucitive Officer, We Founder Circle.
In November, We Circle Founder applied for its first fund with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) that seeks to raise Rs 200 crore (around $27 million). We Founder Circle will be raising more funds this year, the spokesperson said.
We Founder Circle claims to have co-invested with angel investors including Ashutosh Valani of Beardo and RENEE Cosmetics, Ankit Mehrotra of Dine Out, Akash Gupta of Zypp Electric, Kushang of SupplyNote, Amit Tyagi, Cofounder, iServeU Tech, Dravya Dholakia, Dholakia Ventures, Siddharth Shah, MD Rajesh Motors Ankur Jain, Eminent Cars, Hitesh Dhawan, Founder Neuronimbus, among others.
“Currently, we have over 2,000 angels hailing from 16 different countries in our angel network. In 2022, we plan to double this number and expect almost 30% of this coming from global shores. This is expected to infuse good investment in the country from abroad,” said Bhawna Bhatnagar, Head of Global Partnerships and Co-founder, We Founder Circle.
