IPV wants to do for startups what mutual funds did for listed stocks; assures 10-day reply

On Republic World's series 'Road to Aatmanirbharta', a number of startups and offerings have been profiled that are going a long way towards helping people becoming self-sufficient in a variety of ways, while improving the quality of life for Indians amid the pandemic. A type of entity that is indispensable in this ecosystem is the investor, and Republic World recently caught up with one prominent venture fund that has a lofty vision that has helped dozens of startups get that all-important round of funding to take its efforts to the next level.

Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) is one of India's largest angel platforms with over 3,500 investors on board. Having started in 2018, IPV now has a portfolio of investments in over 50 startups across sectors. Right from health-tech to media-tech to gaming, and from online groceries to fintech and beyond. IPV has emerged as one of the most active angel platforms in India, proceeding with deals even during the pandemic. Some of the notable startups that are funded by IPV are BharatPe, Milkbasket, Truly Madly, Blusmart, Crofarm, Teamonks and Samosa Party.

Inflection Point Ventures founder and CEO Vinay Bansal spoke to Republic World's Ankit Prasad and elaborated on IPV's offerings, investments during the COVID-19 pandemic, funding, and future plans.

IVP not slowing down investments pace during COVID-19

Inflection Point Ventures CEO Vinay Bansal said, "Amid COVID-19 people were locked up in their houses and needed better delivery of essentials at their doorstep. So, we took advantage of the crisis and grabbed the new opportunity. The company did three different investments in the same sector-- Milkbasket, Key, and Otipy. These are three doorstep grocery-related delivery services in three different tiers of businesses".

'Similarly, people were spending more and more time on OTT platforms amid the lockdown so we invested in Touch-- a great investment. So we looked at the opportunities differently and helped founders to ride through these tough times", he added.

IPV- 'founder-friendly' & 'Investor-centric'

On being asked about the increase in user-ship of its offerings and on IVP's investment fund, Vinay Bansal stated that there are two parts to the whole puzzle-- 'People looking to invest' and 'Startups looking for funding.'

For the people looking to invest- 'We made it very simple for them by bringing in very deep due-diligence, by curating the startups ourselves. If we look at about 50 to 100 startups in a week we will take only 2 to 3 startups to represent and out of that only one will get funded. That is the quality of work we did for our investors', he said.

Startups looking for funding- 'We made it very simple for the startups to pitch to us which means they did not need to know any big shots in the industry in order to reach out to us. They could simply go to our system, load the deck and they will hear back from us within 10 days and on top of that, once we fund them we take them on to a very strong growth trajectory,' he added.

'According to me, both the sides need work and we have done that by being very founder-friendly and investor centric in order to take this whole marketplace-- which has two sides of the coin, both to be engraved,' said CEO Bansal.

Future plans of Inflection Point Ventures

"The mission is simple- to become and be the most trustworthy investing platform. Where we are it's just the beginning-- that's what we believe and that's how we work every day. In terms of our plan for 2021, we will simply double the number of our investments as well as the amount of funding that we did last year. Even the last year was more than double the previous year. In terms of our future plans, we basically want to do for angel investing into startups, what the mutual funds industry did for the listed stocks. That's the way we are looking at it," said CEO Bansal.

'As we are heading forward, we want to do a good job in the country and then look at the Global market as well. We are also very conscious of the fact that we need to build our expertise and knowledge in the areas that we invest in and we will continue to gather the best of the best experts-- who will be able to guide us in every phase of our startup journey. So, that's the mission we look to and are continuing to work on that. This is what makes us excited every day and make us get out of bed every morning,' said Vinay Bansal.

(Image Credits: @ipventures_in-Twitter)