Bengaluru based angel investment tech platform LetsVenture has launched a Women Angel Investor Network with the vision of widening the base of women angel investors. The platform provides access to women angel investors to invest, mentor and also support early and growth stage startups. This programme is being spearheaded by Sunitha Ramaswamy and Syna Dehnugara, Investors at LetsVenture.
Founded in 2013 by Shanti Mohan, LetsVenture enables startups to create investment ready profiles online to raise seed/angel money and allows to get connected to accredited investors. The company will also allow startups to get their business plans reviewed by experts.
Shanti Mohan, Founder, LetsVenture said, "LetsVenture started in 2013 with the aim of democratizing access to angel investing; and we have done decently at a group level. For instance. In 2020 alone, we had over 700 angel investors join the platform and 35% of them are new to the asset class and over 45% are professionals and CXOs. Even within these buckets, the ratio of female participation is abysmally low and we believe there needs to be concerted effort to change this and therefore we are launching a dedicated programme for women angel investors.”
A survey conducted by LetsVenture found that only one percent of 10,000 angel investors in India are women. So the platform aims at on boarding 100 high networth women angel investors in 2021 and in addition to this will soon launch at least five Lead Syndicates run by women.
As compared to the traditional investment which is close to Rs.1 Crore, the network will allow women angel investors to invest in early stage startups with investments of few lakh rupees. The network will offer investment options in the range of 5 lakhs to 25 lakhs for women investors. Along with this, the platform will also launch a learning program for these investors.
The learning platform, a dedicated community for networking and lower cheque sizes on the platform for a capped timeframe will provide cohort based learning, engagement with other angel investors and open networking circles for women. The platform will look at small cheque size of about 3 lakhs to 5 lakhs per transaction to begin with so as to help women become more comfortable with investing.
It has funded many startups. To name some, YULU, DailyNinja, Ketto, Drivezy etc.
The investors under LetsVenture includes Sanjay Mehta Angel & PE Investor Director CORE Media, Aprameya Radhakrishna Founder and Director at TaxiForSure.com, Rajan Anandan Managing Director, Sequoia Capital and Surge Co Founder of Koo / Co-Founder Taxiforsure, Sharad Sharma Co-Founder iSPIRT foundation and many others.
“Having spoken to several women investors and those that suited to fall into this bucket, we found that the biggest impediments were the lack of access to networks where knowledge and startup deal flow is shared. The intention of the program is to create education amongst women around angel investments, helping them become active investors in the ecosystem. We want to promote women investors from a long-term perspective,” says Sunitha KR, President of early-stage investments, LetsVenture
Through this angel network, the company is looking to improve diversity and gender parity among the investors. In the long run, the firm aims to increase the number of women holding board positions in both listed and unlisted companies in India.
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