INVESTING COMMUNITY THRIVING IN TIER 2/3/4 CITIES: We Founder Circle taps investors in smaller towns

financialexpress.com:

We Founder Circle, a platform for angel investors, is wooing high networth individuals (HNIs) from the smaller towns of India into its fold. The community, with 6500 investors last year, has grown to 10,000-plus investors in 2023 indicating that startups continue to be a viable asset class despite the prolonged funding winter worldwide.

“We are a community of 10,000-plus investors today. I have travelled to 43 cities in India this year meeting the investor community from small towns and cities, educating people about this asset class — startups. They have shown interest in investing anything from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 1 crore. These are people from tier 2, 3 and 4 towns,” says Gaurav VK Singhvi, co-founder of We Founder Circle.

“Whether it is Bhilwara, Erode, Bilaspur or Siliguri, there are many individuals in these smaller towns who only need to be shown the investment opportunities.”

Singhvi says the ultimate objective is to broad-base early-stage investing. As he says, the investing community “need not be confined to London, Dubai or Singapore or the metros of India” but can be based out of tier 2, 3 and 4 towns. “As a result of our efforts, more than 50% of the investors in our community hail from these towns. This statistic is indicative of the positive transformation occurring in Bharat,” he says.

Since April 2023, We Founder Circle’s angel fund on its investment platform invstt.com has attracted active participation from more than 600 investors, contributing to a total fund commitment exceeding $25 million. The platform, which focuses on early-stage startups, is expecting 100-110 investment deals by the end of this year, having closed 53 deals till now (Garuda Aerospace, Rooter, Blu Smart, Evify, Soptle and Pee Safe