New Delhi: Former Snapdeal and Airtel executive Anand Chandrasekaran has handpicked a portfolio of over a dozen start-ups during the last three years, making him one of the most active angel investors from Silicon Valley operating in India.
The Gurgaon-based executive plans to spend the next couple of months helping companies, in which he has invested in the capacity of an angel investor, with product and business advice and spending time with them.
Chandrasekaran, the former chief product officer at online e-commerce firm Snapdeal, quit last week to start his own venture. He was hired by Snapdeal, run by Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd, in June last year.
Chandrasekaran invests $25,000-50,000 per company and has invested in about 15 start-ups in India as well as in the Silicon Valley since 2013. However, most of his investments have taken place in the last 12-15 months.
His recent investments include Innerchef, one of those rare food tech start-ups that have survived, online healthcare firm Pluss, online dating platform Aisle and smartphone firm Creo, among others.
“I look at the idea and the entrepreneur. Though I am sector agnostic, I have avoided firms operating in the offline space. Technology is something I understand and can add value to tech start-ups,” said Chandrasekaran. He prefers to bet on second-generation entrepreneurs.
Chandrasekaran is close to investing in another 4-5 early-stage start-ups within the next 60 days.
“Artificial Intelligence, clean tech and fin-tech are some of the areas I find exciting,” added Chandrasekaran.
Some of the start-ups in Chandrasekaran’s portfolio have already raised series A and B funding. “They are expected to generate returns of about 8-10x,” he added.
Chandrasekaran got in early into Audeze, a headphone-maker based in Los Angeles. The company later raised strategic capital from Warner Music.
Indee.tv, a secure distribution platform for leading film and TV studios, went on to raise funds from Kalaari Capital.
Before Snapdeal, Chandrasekaran co-founded Aeroprise, a personalized mobile applications software company that was acquired by BMC Software Inc. in 2011.
Before becoming the chief product officer at Snapdeal, Chandrasekaran held the same designation at Bharti Airtel Ltd. He also served as senior director, search products, at Yahoo Inc. in the Silicon Valley.
