Women angel investors get push from LetsVenture

BENGALURU: Angel Investing platform LetsVenture's Women Investor Network (WIN) has created a structured, cohort-based learning programme to encourage more women to participate in angel investing.Shanti Mohan, founder of LetsVenture, said when they looked at their portfolio early this year, they found the platform had investors from 55 countries, and less than 1% of the investors were women. There were less than 25 women investors."The idea of our programme is to introduce more women to angel investing, deal sourcing & evaluation, all the way to legal and financial due diligence, and building their personal brand as an angel investor," she said.Mohan has set a target of signing up 100 women angels, 5 syndicate leads, and 2 women general partners this year.WIN concluded its first cohort in June with 34 participants, of whom 15 have sucessfully written their first cheque and are now active angel investors.Ten women wrote two or more cheques, About 5% of women have shown interest in writing cheques for growth-stage startups. The second cohort begins in September.Shalini Nautiyal, senior product manager at Amzon in Berlin, was part of the first cohort. She had started a hyper-local activity discovery platform in 2013 that was acquired two years later."The (LetsVenture) masterclass was very helpful, putting the spotlight on the investment thesis, evaluating a deal, understanding how syndicates work, and the role of a lead investor. We also got a lowdown on what is the total available market, serviceable available market and serviceable obtainable market," she said.Sangeetha Baburaj, a senior product specialist at SAP Labs India who was part of the cohort, said she still considers herself a novice in angel investing. She is excited about opportunities in HR tech, AR and VR."we learnt the fundamentals of investing and it has prepared us to ask the rigth questions and to evaluate a deal sand the jargon," she said.Published by TOI on August 23 | https://bit.ly/3jq7OLiCheck out how Revenue Based Financing is the asset class for the Smart Investor and what investors should account for in Bharat-focused startups?