Indian Angel Network (IAN), one of the largest angel networks in India and Asia, today became the first Angel Group globally to launch a chapter overseas. IAN announced that it will establish presence in UK with the full support of the UK government.
British Prime Minister David Cameron also addressed the meeting of IAN investors and shared his excitement of bringing IAN to the UK.
UK is amongst the world’s top 10 ecosystems for start-ups because of the innovation and R&D at several of its academic Institutions, diverse talent, capital infrastructure, strong government support and favorable policies for startup/early stage ventures.
Padmaja Ruparel, President, IAN said, “UK is a strategic market for IAN, we already have some active UK investors investing in Indian start-ups and our investee companies are expanding there. We aim at investing in innovative businesses in UK and take the start-ups in the region to the global innovation roadmap. It’s a strategic alliance which will benefit IAN investors investing in UK based start-ups and also open doors for start-ups based in UK to access global markets.”
IAN is the only angel group in the world with operations across multiple cities and a mix of around 250 institutional and individual members.
Saurabh Srivastava, co-founder of IAN, who is leading the initiative said, “UK is home to some of the best research and innovation in the world but has been underleveraged by global angels as angel activity tends to be a localized, city based, “ clubby affair” with informal processes that do not scale.The vision of the UK government, which is aligned with ours and we are delighted to partner them as this collaboration will help create wealth for entrepreneurs and investors, drive economic growth in the region and build another track of seed / early stage ventures between India and UK.”
