IAN Group invests Rs. 85 crores in 52 startups in 2022

• ByStartupStory     |    January 2, 2023

IAN, India’s largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, expects to invest more than Rs. 85 crores in 52 firms by the end of 2022, including those in the Fintech, B2B SaaS, D2C, and Cleantech sectors, among others. All of these businesses are solving actual issues, thus they either directly serve customers or have an impact. IAN invested in 11 women-owned firms and 13 startups from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, moving forward with its vision of enhancing the startup ecosystem and assisting entrepreneurs to establish high-growth, valuable companies.

13 high value corporations had profitable exits in 2022 as well. IAN granted cash exits of almost 4 times the amount invested in these 13 companies, which totaled Rs. 28 crores, while investors kept holding shares worth Rs. 180 crores. Additionally, this year, the portfolio firms of IAN have raised a combined INR 1260 crore in capital. With an investing fund corpus of 20% and 21%, respectively, as of September 2022, the IAN Group had invested in more than 17% of businesses run by women entrepreneurs and more than 25% of businesses from tier cities. 

Up to this point, the IAN platform has contributed to the creation of over 90,000 jobs, the submission of more than 160 patents, and the reduction of more than 40,000 MT of carbon emissions.

Padmaja Ruparel, co-founder of IAN, commented on the organization’s performance this year saying, “Startups and startup investing have established themselves in the HNI portfolio. Despite the geo political scenario, mass layoffs etc., IAN has proved to be, once again, a high traction platform enabling investments, exiting, and helping companies with their next rounds. We are now confident that the coming year will be all the more promising. With the growth curve IAN has had, it will soon achieve its vision of supporting 500 startups, investing INR 5000 crores and creating 500,000 jobs by 2030.”

IAN is credited with introducing the idea of angel investing to India. The platform was created in 2006 with an emphasis on encouraging and guiding the next generation of business owners. Already then, the IAN Group has put 900 crore rupees into more than 200 businesses, which have since raised 18,000 crore rupees in capital. IAN now has three unicorns and five soonicorns in its portfolio, giving it a market valuation of approximately $9 billion.

Companies like Phool.co, Dhruva Space, WebEngage, Wow! Momo, Propelld, etc. are among those in the portfolio of IAN’s first venture capital fund, IAN Fund 1. Major Indian and international investors have participated in the next rounds of funding for about 70% of the fund’s portfolio companies. Following the success of IAN Fund 1, IAN introduced the SEBI-registered Cat II venture capital fund IAN Alpha Fund this year, with a fund corpus of INR 1,000 crores. This fund is eager to invest in new industries including Industry 4.0, Web 3, Robotics, and other technologies such as Cleantech, Healthtech, Agritech, Edutech, and Fintech. Additionally, in collaboration with BIRAC, the year saw the operationalization of BioAngels, India’s first sector-focused angel investor club.

Follow Startup Story