Andhra CM Launches Angel Fund To Back Telugu Entrepreneurs

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu today (January 7) launched an Angel fund, ‘Telugu Angels’, aimed at empowering Telugu entrepreneurs to build and scale their ventures globally.

However, the fund size was not disclosed.

According to a statement, the fund is also making strategic partnerships with global investor networks and accelerators and is set to launch a strategic investing group comprising unicorn and soonicorn founders.

“…The launch of Telugu Angels is a significant step in this journey of Vision 2047 and I believe this initiative will be one of the key enablers…,” Naidu said.

Commenting on the development, Siddharth Marupeddi, CEO of FirstLoop Capital, said “It’s been 10 years since we launched StartAP as a key startup ecosystem enabler and today it gives me immense pride to launch a larger global network that strengthens Telugu Founders, CXOs and seasoned entrepreneurs worldwide.”

This comes as the state government is looking for a $2.4 Tn economy by 2047. With this, the government is also eyeing to achieve a per capita income of $43,000 (INR 36.8 Lakh).

Notably, the government recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Google to accelerate adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the state.

The partnership will mainly focus on integrating AI and ML solutions in the sectors like sustainability and healthcare.  

The state was also one of the major contenders for offering land parcels to electronics manufacturer Foxconn to set up a facility. 

At the time, the AP government had offered 2,500 acres of land to build an industrial park for the Taiwan based OEM.