Lead Angels
Lead Angels is India’s first privately owned angel network founded by a team of three originally from IIT Bombay in 2014 with the aim of improving early stage investment outcomes. The team accomplishes this by providing professional assistance to investor-members in company evaluation and the portfolio companies in their operations.
The Union Budget from a startup investor’s viewpoint. The government’s openness on blockchains is a positive step and this could further improve the digital economy in India.
Startups and their founders are optimists about the future. That’s why they were started in the first place. Consequently, with every budget hopes arise all over thinking of tax concessions, more funding and laxer laws. Of course, the realists know the world over governments are adding new taxes to meet their growing expenses and also becoming more stringent on violations at the same time. In the context of the pre-election year budget, any great expectations are bound to be misplaced. While the fine-print is being analysed by experts, the key takeaways for the startup ecosystem is encouraging. Firstly, as an asset class, capital gains on unlisted securities include shares of most startups, and remain unchanged at 20 percent, with the benefit of indexation, while the taxation of capital gains on listed equities has been increased.
Passion and profits – the paradoxical relationship. Steve Jobs once said, “People with passion can change the world” and if there is one company in the world that exudes passion that is unmatched across the startup world it is Apple.
Is it then just a mere coincidence that Apple is also the most valuable company in the world today? At the base of it all is passion. With passion comes resilience against adversity that every startup has to encounter from the word go. It enables the entrepreneur to disregard obstacles and hurdles that come their way with the innate belief that what they are doing is for the greater good. In the Indian environment, startup resilience is critical often relating to the regulatory structure which is somewhat archaic. In a classic case of delay, an entrepreneur had to wait over five years to get the excise license for a micro-brewery that they were planning putting a severe strain on their finances and those of their investors but persistence paid. Sometimes, this confidence is a stretch but it works. Invest in FinTech Startups. A couple of months ago Bajaj Finance overtook SBI in its market capitalization signifying how the once darling of stock markets is now struggling to protect is the name in the financial world.
Similarly, banks across the world have been hit by disruption where the battle for leadership is being fought not on the strength of the branch network or the size of its balance sheet but whether its app’s user interface is worthy of finding space on the customers mobile phone. And this war has just begun. Technology is questioning the need for not just the branch network but also its financial experts, its currency advisories and many other things. Today, AI is replacing fund managers, crypto beating fiat currency and the virtual cloud displacing the bank branch at an ever-increasing pace.
The millennials want everything on an app including financial advice, forex transactions and loans giving rise to a new breed of startups which are collectively called Fintech startups. Become an Angel Investor - Invest in Startups. The Union Budget from a startup investor’s viewpoint. Invest in Indian Startups (1) Why Invest Into Indian Startups. The break neck speed at which technology is transforming our lives now is unprecedented across human history.
Each day, some where in the world, there is a startup that is breaking rules and shaking the foundations of an established practice or business. While many of such startups may fail but a few will certainly grow to become leaders in their domain. This also means that their founders, teams and early investors who put their money and time behind these companies would be laughing all the way to the bank. There are countless examples of such startups that have now multi-billion dollar valuations and have rewarded their investors handsomely.
Facebook, Alibaba, AirBnB and Uber are just a few names. What is to be noted that most of these far-reaching disruptions originated from startups none of which were public companies. STARTUPS: THINK LIKE WALMART & FLIPKART FROM DAY ONE. Indian Startup Investing – Snakes & Ladders. Let’s face it like many things in India, Indian business is also chaotic.
The lack of order, ever changing tax laws and growing number of scams that plague our country make investing scary if not a fool hardy activity. Yet at 7.5% annual GDP growth, 600 million strong affluent class and soon to be the third largest economy, India is a country no investor can ignore. This is yet another demonstration of the paradox that is India. Now if you can’t ignore it, where do you invest in India. Compared to other assets classes like stocks, mutual funds and fixed deposits, investments in startups give you potentially the highest returns. When one evaluates a startup, two things one has to focus on. If you find companies where revenue growth outpaces capital deployment those would be interesting companies to invest in as long as it can eventually turn profitable.