Indian Angel Network (IAN)

Choose the right route

• Biotech, medtech, healthtech, pharma, agritech or cleantech: BioAngels has its own plan form and its own investor group.
• Deep tech, or an early-stage startup or MSME with strong founders: the IAN Alpha Fund describes this as its focus.
• Any other early-stage startup: use the group's Submit Plan page, which is the route for the IAN Angel Fund.

How applications work

• Applications are a business plan submitted through an online form, with no cohort or fixed intake window.
• The form needs a sign-in, so create the account first and expect to fill it in online.
• The Alpha Fund's own site has no separate form, so use the group form for it.
• The pages we read do not say you need an introduction, so submit directly.

What to know before you pitch

• IAN invests, so expect to discuss what you give up in exchange. It is not a grant.
• IAN says it offers mentoring and network access alongside capital. Be ready to say what you want from those, not only the money.
• IAN publishes no formal criteria, so make your plan answer the basics clearly: the problem, your product and stage, your team and what you are raising for.
• Do not send plans to individual team inboxes. Founders are pointed to the plan form, and the investor inboxes are for investors.

Indian Angel Network (IAN), now presented as IAN Group, is an angel network and a group of SEBI-registered venture funds that invest in early-stage Indian startups. It began in April 2006, and its site names eight co-founders. It is an investor, not an incubator or accelerator: its own site shows no cohort programme, and founders reach it by submitting a business plan through an online form.

How IAN invests

IAN describes what it offers as money, mentoring and market access. The money comes through a set of investment vehicles that the group lists on its About page, each registered with SEBI as an Alternative Investment Fund. IAN Fund I is a Category I venture capital fund. IAN Capital is registered as a Category I fund and is the group's angel fund. IAN Alpha Fund, held through IAN Alpha Trust, is a Category II fund. Indian Angel Network Services Pvt Ltd manages IAN Capital and IAN Alpha Trust, and IAN Consultancy LLP manages IAN Fund I.

The group says it is sector agnostic, and its pages name technology, healthcare, education and consumer businesses among others. This is an investment, not a grant. Beyond the cheque, IAN says portfolio companies get mentoring, access to its network and input on strategy and execution from founders and senior executives who have built businesses themselves.

The funds a founder can pitch

The IAN Angel Fund draws on the IAN Angel Network, IAN Fund I and the IAN Alpha Fund, and invests in early-stage startups. Its page headed Join IAN Angel Fund is written for people who want to invest in the fund, not for founders. Founders use the Submit Plan page instead.

The IAN Alpha Fund is the second in the group's series of venture funds. It backs early-stage startups and MSMEs led by strong founders who are solving real problems with technology, including businesses aligned with India's strategic priorities. Its own pages say deep tech is at the heart of its thesis.

BioAngels is a separate angel group that IAN runs in partnership with BIRAC, an enterprise of the Department of Biotechnology. It is for biotech, medtech, healthtech, pharma, agritech and cleantech startups that want to raise an angel round from investors with deep domain expertise. It has its own Submit Plan page.

Who can apply

IAN does not publish formal eligibility criteria. Its pages describe who it backs as early-stage startups, and the Alpha Fund also names MSMEs. All of the stated aims are India-focused, and the plan page states no geographic restriction. The application form sits behind a sign-in page, so what it asks for could not be read. The pages we read do not say you need an introduction before you submit.

How to apply

Share your business plan through the Submit Plan page on the IAN Group site. The Contact Us page says the same: if you have a startup or idea, share your business plan to be considered for funding. BioAngels has its own plan form for its sectors. The Alpha Fund's own site shows no separate application form, so the group form is the route to use for it. The site does not state a response time or a selection process.

Scale

IAN reports its own figures, and they differ from page to page. Its pages count the companies it has backed anywhere from over 200 to over 270, and the number of sectors from 19 to 28. The investor base is given as over 500 members across 10 to 12 countries, depending on the page. Jobs created are given as about 145,000 on one page and 160,000 on another. The group also says it has a 20-year history and has seen multiple exits, without giving a count. Treat all of these as orders of magnitude, not audited totals.

Who runs it

The site names IAN's co-founders and board as Saurabh Srivastava, Raman Roy, Mohit Goyal, Alok Mittal, Ajai Chowdhry, Harish Mehta, Pradeep Gupta and Padmaja Ruparel. Padmaja Ruparel is listed as a co-founder and founding partner. Chintan Thakkar is Group CEO of IAN Group and Senior Managing Partner of the IAN Alpha Fund. IAN also says Forbes India's timeline of milestones over 75 years included IAN in 2006.

Locations, contact and careers

The site gives no postal address or city. Its Contact Us page lists separate contacts for West India, for North and East India, and for South India. Investors have their own inboxes for membership queries and for existing investors, and founders should use the plan form rather than those. Media queries and careers each have a role inbox, and the site has a careers page. IAN also has an events page and a newsletters and reports page.

Ericsson Innovation Challenge

Our catalogue lists the Ericsson Innovation Challenge under IAN. Ericsson ran it, and Ericsson's announcement names an IAN mentoring and incubation arm and TiE Delhi-NCR as partners. The announcement gave applications as open from 2 to 22 July 2026, so it has closed. IAN's own site does not mention it, so treat it as an Ericsson programme with IAN as a partner.