Indian Angel Network

Investment decisions are driven by a membership-based model governed by Padmaja Ruparel as President and the founding team. Deals are vetted through sector-specific screening committees composed of domain-expert members before being presented to the broader investor base for individual commitment. Final investment authority rests with the individual angels who choose to participate, while the IAN Alpha Fund operates under a formal investment committee structure aligned with SEBI AIF regulations.

IAN sources deals through its multi-city chapter network spanning New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, and Jaipur, supplemented by an international chapter in London. The group benefits from its founders' deep ties to TiE, NASSCOM, and India's serial-entrepreneur community, creating a referral funnel that captures company formation at the earliest stage. IAN also partners with incubators, academic institutions, and government startup initiatives to access pre-institutional deal flow.

Indian Angel Network is neither a single family office nor a traditional venture firm. It is a membership-based angel network that pools capital and diligence resources of over 500 high-net-worth individuals. The 2022 launch of IAN Alpha Fund, a SEBI-registered Category II AIF, added an institutional fund management layer atop the core network, creating a hybrid structure that competes with early-stage venture funds while retaining the distributed angel-syndicate model.

IAN primarily executes direct equity investments in early-stage companies, with individual angels taking pro-rata stakes on deal-by-deal terms. Through IAN Fund I and IAN Alpha Fund, the platform also operates pooled investment vehicles that make larger, institutionally structured commitments and build concentrated portfolios. The network itself does not take LP stakes in third-party venture funds.

The core angel network focuses on seed and pre-Series-A rounds with tickets typically ranging from approximately $100,000 to $1 million. IAN Fund I raised ₹375 crore in 2017 to participate in these rounds with pooled capital. The IAN Alpha Fund, launched in September 2022 with a ₹1,000 crore target, extends the platform's reach into Series A and Series B rounds, allowing the group to retain ownership in breakout portcos that previously would have been handed entirely to larger institutional VCs.

The capital is sourced from IAN's membership of over 500 accredited individual investors — largely Indian and diaspora entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and professionals — who commit personal balance-sheet capital on a deal-by-deal basis. The Alpha Fund aggregates capital from members and external limited partners into a structured AIF vehicle, diversifying the funding base beyond purely angel-derived capital.

IAN positions itself as a high-engagement investor, connecting portfolio companies with a membership base that includes repeat founders, operating executives, and domain specialists who provide mentorship, board participation, and commercial introductions. The network's sector committees and chapter events create structured touchpoints for portfolio support, while the Alpha Fund's institutional format has enabled dedicated portfolio-management resources that extend beyond the typical angel-network operating model.