Yatra Angel Network Announces Angel Fund For Indian Fintech Startups

Mumbai-based early stage investment firm Yatra Angel Network (YAN) announced the launch of a Securities and Exchange Board Of India (SEBI) registered Cat 1 AIF (Angel Fund) for fintech startups. The fund will look to support 25 – 30 early stage Indian fintech startups and catalyse their journey by helping them raise capital and bridge expertise and connections needed to grow to their full potential.

The funds have been raised from experienced banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector professionals. YAN is looking to have more than 100 active investors by the end of the year. 

“We have carefully reviewed and selected angels based on their knowledge and willingness to help portfolio  founders. The idea is to promote entrepreneurship specifically in the fintech domain with a prime focus on nurturing and mentoring new generation entrepreneurs, ” said Pankaj Singh, investment professional at YAN.

The YAN as an idea emerged from “The Fintech Yatra” which is supported by 25+ institutions every year. It has covered 25000+ kms across India 2018 and engaged with more than 2000+ fintech startups.

Yatra had received support and appreciation from the government and institutions which resulted in the development of an Accelerator (with MEITY, Central Government. It is a three month long PPP model-led fintech acceleration program that is guided by regulatory and BFSI experts and incubators with IIM Bangalore, NSRCEL.

YAN devised a unique model to support the early-stage startups ideas arising from Fintech Yatra. The network looks for minimum investment of INR 25 Lakhs and above from each member. 

“We aim to enable impactful investments in the fintech industry where angel investor will not only contribute capital but also bring subject matter expertise (SME), network, mentorship, distribution channel and more to a startup, as the case may be with each participating angel,” said Abhishant Pant, Partner at YAN and Founder at The Fintech Meetup.

It plans to invest in 25-30 startups over the next 3 years by participating at the seed stage with a cheque size of INR 90 lakhs – INR 1.5 Cr to each startup.

The partners of the fund have hands-on experience of investing in startups  such as Riskcovry, YAP, PhiCommerce, Shopse, WIMWISure, Zimyo, Payglocal, Icanpe and others.

YAN has a three-tier investors value chain across early stage, strategic and large investors.

Like last year, Fintech continues to dominate the Indian startup funding scene by raising almost 22% of the capital infused in 2021 (as of May 31). The sector has raised more than $2 Bn in 2021 so far, representing a 4X increase from $495 Mn raised in the first five months of 2020. Some of the prominent deals in this segment were CRED’s $296 Mn fundraise across Series C and D round, Groww’s $83 Mn Series D round, Zeta’s $250 Mn Series C round, and BharatPe’s $108 Mn fundraise, among others.