Pai, Tata strike most deals as angel investors in 2015

Nandan Nilekani, Gokul Rajaram at top two spots in value terms

Former Infosys chief financial officer T V Mohandas Pai and Tata Sons’ Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata were India’s top angel investors by the number of deals they made in 2015. Going by value, Nandan Nilekani, who co-founded Infosys and also former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India, and Gokul Rajaram, product engineering lead at Square, occupied the top two spots.

While Pai has made investments across 18 deals (amount disclosed was $0.4 million), Tata invested across 17 deals (value was not disclosed), according to VCCEdge data.

Pai invested in companies including 6Degree Networks, Amigobulls, Cimplyfive Corporate Secretarial Services, Delightful Gourmet, Fly With Vip Online, IndiePitch Solutions, Jigsaw Academy Education, Kaaryah Lifestyle Solutions, Khemeia Technologies, Next Door Learning Solutions and Omnia Information.

Tata invested in companies including ANI Technologies, Actoserba Active Wholesale, Altaeros Energies, Ampere Vehicles, Crayon Data, Girnar Software, Holachef Hospitality, IndiePitch Solutions, Infinite Analytics, Kaaryah Lifestyle Solutions and One 97 Communications.

They were followed by Google India's Managing Director Rajan Jei Anandan (16 deals), Snapdeal's Chief Executive Officer Kunal Bahl (15 deals), Snapdeal's Co-founder Rohit Kumar Bansal (15 deals), Toppr's Founder Zishaan Hayath (14 deals), People Group's Founder Chief Executive Officer Anupam Gopal Mittal (12 deals), Flipkart's Co-founder Binny Bansal (10 deals), independent angel investor Ajeet Khurana and founding partner of Eight Innovate Vikram Chachra with nine deals each.

Going by value, Nilekani invested (taking disclosed amount into consideration) $12.05 million and concluded six deals.

He was followed by Rajaram $8 million in one deal, Embassy Property Developments Chairman and Managing Director Jitendra Virwani’s $7.6 million in one deal, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s $4 million in four deals among others.

Angel and seed deals in 2015 rose 83 per cent to 650 deals from 356 deals in 2014. Deal value rose  64 per cent to $327.1 million from $199.66 million.