CoA Closes Its First Pool Of Fundraising Of INR 25 Cr; To Invest In 200 Startups The investment will be used to back startups with disruptive business models, high growth and scale potential
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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The Circle.Work-backed platform Circle of Angels (CoA) on Tuesday announced its first round of fundraising totaling INR 25 crore.
The platform is an industry-agnostic network of investors, driving high-quality deal flow through an online and offline investment platform, to co-invest in and mentor startups.
Founded by Karanpal Singh in 2018, the platform maintains that it was conceptualized to drive positive change in the ecosystem of entrepreneurs, business partners, investors, business angels, venture capitalists and crowdfunders.
The platform has further claimed to have attracted a vetted list of over 200 senior angels of investors, startup founders, and tech pundits from around the globe specializing in fields like fintech, law, finance, SaaS, digital media, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and more.
"Early-stage startups are prone to failure despite sound business ideas due to lack of access to funds, but more importantly mentorship and networks. Through CoA, The Circle.Work intends to invite experienced and accomplished business angels to provide valuable advice and create important connections between founders, entrepreneurs, and corporations," remarked Rajiv Bathla, chief operating officer, The Circle.Work. "Our role will be that of a catalyst to help start-ups navigate through the early days of their journey. Initially, we plan to work with about 10-12 company boards, and actively create a bespoke deal flow for their funding."
The startup connecting platform has onboarded over 50 angels as Tata Sons Private Limited group government affairs officer Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Samvardhana group general counsel RaghuC.V., Keka founder and chief executive officer Vijay Yalamanchili, IP lawyer and strategist Safir Anand, Intelligent Insights founder Ashok Venkataramani, BYLD Group executive director Sandeep Budhiraja among others.
"Our country's aspiration of achieving a 5T $ economy would be powered by the unleashing of vibrant entrepreneurship culture. CoA is in a unique position to support this disruptive growth, by enabling budding entrepreneurs to not be shackled by concerns on access to early-stage capital and providing them quality mentorship, best practices and learnings and the motivation to succeed in a road less traveled," concluded Amit Dutta, chief evangelist, CoA.
