Investment platform We Founder Circle aims to facilitate Rs 100 crore funding in startups this year

Investment platform We Founder Circle on Friday said it aims to facilitate investment of around Rs 100 crore in Indian startups this year with Rs 20 crore contribution from its founders.

We Founder Circle (WFC) co-founder and CEO Neeraj Tyagi told PTI that the firm last year facilitated investment of Rs 30 crore in 33 deals with around Rs 5 crore contribution from the founders of the platform.

"This year our target is to reach 75 deals which may include repeat investments in growing startups. We are aiming to facilitate funding worth Rs 100 crore in Indian startups. WFC co-founders will make around 20 per cent of the investments," Tyagi said.

He said that WFC first selects potential startups, makes initial investment and then takes them to the investors community connected to the platform.

"WFC co-founders have made over 100 deals in startups at individual levels. We have seen enthusiasm among angel investors coming from small towns in the country like Rajkot, Bilaspur etc.

We first invest our money in potential startups after thorough scrutiny which helps generate confidence among investors to invest in them," Tyagi said.

He said that the company is building a technology platform to bring transparency in investments and startup businesses.

"So far we have seen several investors in the country are not using technology. We have developed tools to help our investor community track performance of startups and make decisions after having the right set of information. We have over 2,000 investors from 33 countries connected to our platform. We are looking to scale it up to 10,000 investors," Tyagi said.

WFC co-founder Gaurav V K Singhvi said that investments in startups as an asset class is growing, and in a few years it will mature to become like a mutual fund with 7 crore investors making investments.

"There is huge gap between number of investors in mutual fund and startup, which brings a lot of business potential as we grow," Singhvi said.