The D2C sector in India is witnessing a proliferation of emerging brands spanning various industries, ranging from health and wellness to food and beverage, and from clothing to fashion. What sustains these D2C startups is the substantial financial backing provided by risk-taking investors who believe in their brand’s vision. Among these champions of early-stage startups are angel investors. Angel investors are typically affluent individuals, often entrepreneurs with extensive experience in the startup realm, who invest in startups in return for a share of the company’s equity. However, identifying the ideal angel investor for a business demands dedicated effort and an exhaustive search.
1.Aditya Burman
Aditya Burman is the Director at Dabur India Ltd, an Indian multinational consumer goods company. He is also a Director on the board of Oncquest Laboratories Ltd., a Clinical Pathology and Molecular Diagnostics company focusing on Oncology and Genetics. He also serves on the board of Dabur Nepal Pvt Ltd, besides being the President of the Delhi Chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a global network exclusively for entrepreneurs. He is often credited for changing a loss-making diagnostic business (Dabur Pharma) into a Rs 100-crore entity.
Notable D2C investment: Furlenco
Get in touch: Aditya Burman
2. Anand Chandrasekaran
Named Fortune’s 40 under 40, Anand Chandrasekaran is a partner at General Catalyst. He has been a changemaker in various businesses, including Facebook, Snapdeal, Airtel, and more. He is a Charter Member of TiE Silicon Valley. In 2010, Anand was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Anand has been an angel investor in 80+ companies.
Notable D2C investments: Baby Chakra, Sattviko
Get in touch: Anand Chandrasekaran
3. Aniketh Jain
As the ex-CEO of Solutions Infini, Aniketh Jain has constantly been focusing on creating an easy-to-use, multi-channel Cloud communication platform for clients to bridge the gap in communications. Aniketh has also been the Chief Revenue Officer in Kaleyra, a global Communications Platform as a Service company. His strengths as a leader are Business Process Automation, Product management, and Sound strategy with execution. His prominent investment areas include Consumer Products and Services, Health-Tech, Hyperlocal and Logistics, and Industrial and Business Products and Services.
Notable D2C investment: Supply6
Get in touch: Aniketh Jain
Bonus: Here’s a recent LinkedIn post we loved: Link
4. Binny Bansal
Binny Bansal is the Co-founder & Executive Chairman at xto10x Technologies. He is also the Co-founder of Flipkart and Board Advisor at Udhyam Learning Foundation. India Today ranked him #26th, along with Sachin Bansal, in India’s 50 Most Powerful People of 2017 list.
Notable D2C investment: Purple Style Labs
Get in touch: Binny Bansal
5. Dharmesh Dalal
Dharmesh Dalal is Partner at Inga Ventures, Head of Strategy Business Development at Antique Stock Broking Limited, Associate Director at HSBC, and Associate Director at Indo Suez W I Carr Securities India Private Limited. He is also a CA with over 25 years of rich and varied experience in heading & managing an Institutional broking team.
Notable D2C investment: MALAKI
Get in touch: Dharmesh Dalal
6. Dhianu Das
Dhianu Das is a prominent business leader, serial entrepreneur, and investor with a mission to empower entrepreneurs & start-ups with investment, mentoring, and capacity-building to enable fast business development. With extensive investment, operation, strategy & development experience, he has mentored many startups into successful businesses. He has effectively led major business turnarounds and set up new businesses across India.
Notable D2C investment: Power Gummies
Get in touch: Dhianu Das
7. Harsh Shah
Harsh Shah is the Co-Founder and also serves as a Board Member at Fynd (Online Fashion Marketplace). He also serves as a Venture Partner at First Cheque. He also Co-Founded Nova Global. Harsh looked after monitoring Caspian’s debt portfolio and supported the investment team on the financial analysis of investment opportunities. Prior to Caspian, Harsh worked as a Financial Analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, where he was responsible for financial analysis of major European Banks.
Notable D2C investment: Disrupt Brand
Get in touch: Harsh Shah
8. Hemant Dua
Hemant Dua is Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer at Do Your Thng, Promoter Consultant at Inspiranti Sports, and CEO- Delhi Daredevils(IPL); U.PYoddha(PKL); Dilli Veer(PWL); Jo’Burg Giants(GLT20) at GMR Sports Private Limited, and Director – Asia at Octagon. Over the last 25 years, he has managed and grown businesses, curated brands, executed mega events/sporting properties, managed sports franchises, incubated ideas, delivered ROI on sponsorships, and mentored young players into champions.
Notable D2C investment: Soxytoes
Get in touch: Hemant Dua
9. Kunal Bahl
Kunal Bahl is Co-Founder & CEO at Snapdeal, Co-Founder at Titan Capital, Co-Founder of Ace Vector, and Independent Director at Piramal Enterprises Limited. Bahl has also been involved with various industry associations and think tanks. He has been on the board of governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, a member of the executive council of NASSCOM, and the chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – national committee on e-commerce. He is often credited for creating one of the largest online marketplaces in India.
Notable D2C investments: Mamaearth, Bewakoof
Get in touch: Kunal Bahl
10. Mitesh Shah
A finance & strategy expert with 15+ years of experience in startups & angel investment, Mitesh Shah spearheaded the finance department at BookMyShow. He played a pivotal role in the evolution of one of the biggest start-ups in India- OLA. He also led the IPO of Mandhana Industries and its exclusive global licensing deal with Salman Khan’s Being Human brand. He is currently a partner at Physis Capital and co-founder at Inflection Point Ventures.
Notable D2C investment: Pee Safe, IGP.com
Get in touch: Mitesh Shah
11. Mohandas Pai
Mohandas Pai is a Padma Shri Awardee and former CFO and Board Member at Infosys. He is also the co-founder of Akshaya Patra, the world’s largest midday meal program, and works actively with government and regulators on policy recommendations and guidelines. Mohan has served as the Chairman of the Board of SEBI, and is now a Board Member of the National Stock Exchange in India. He has emerged as one of India’s most prolific angel investors.
Notable D2C investment: Licious
Get in touch: Mohandas Pai
12. Rahul Maroli
Rahul Maroli is a thought leader with demonstrated ability in strategic planning, P&L management, driving shareholder returns and building businesses for sustained profit, growth, and scale. As a business leader for over 18+ years, Rahul has been steering market-leading companies in the media & entertainment, mobility, e-commerce, consumer & start-up industries. He is currently the CEO of Genius Inside.
Notable D2C investment: Pee Safe
Get in touch: Rahul Maroli
13. Rajan Anandan
Rajan Anandan is Managing Director at Sequoia Capital, Vice President India and SEA at Google and Managing Director, Microsoft India at Microsoft. As part of the leadership team at Sequoia Capital India, Rajan focuses on developing its early-stage program Surge, into the world’s top scale-up program for startups by acting as an investment advisor and mentor to the program’s founders.
Notable D2C investment: Smytten, Belora Cosmetics
Get in touch: Rajan Anandan
14. Ramakant Sharma
Ramakant Sharma is Founder and COO at Livspace, Operating Partner at Jungle Ventures, and Co-Founder at Violetbag.com at Zing Ecommerce Pvt. Ltd ( Violetbag.com). Ramakant plays a central role in driving all technological innovations that form the backbone of Livspace while also leading the operations team. Before building Livspace, Ramakant was a core team member and Vice President of Engineering at Myntra, a leading fashion eCommerce startup in India.
Notable D2C investments: Bare Anatomy, The Souled Store, Toothsi
Get in touch: Ramakant Sharma
15. Raveen Sastry
Raveen Sastry is the Founding Partner at Multiply Ventures. Before this, he worked as a Strategic Advisor at Zeta Global and co-founded NudgeSpot – a technology company that builds in-app messenger, browser, and mobile push and email messages that support businesses in communicating with their customers. Before Nudgespot, he co-founded hoopos.com and served the same company as the head of products and marketing.
Notable D2C investment: Rapawalk
Get in touch: Raveen Sastry
16. Rohan Malhotra
Rohan Malhotra is the Founding Partner at Good Capital, an India- focused $25MN pre-seed to Series A fund. He is also a co-founder and partner at Investopad. Rohan’s investment majorly focuses on Fintech and e-commerce startups.
Notable D2C investment: Meesho
Get in touch: Rohan Malhotra
17. Sakshi Chopra
Sakshi Chopra is a Principal with Sequoia Capital India. Prior to Sequoia Capital, Sakshi worked at Deutsche Bank in India and Germany with Global Transaction Banking focusing on Mid Cap clients and as Executive Assistant to Member of the Management Board and Head of Private and Business Clients, Deutsche Bank Group. Earlier, Sakshi worked with McCann-Erickson and Mudra Communications.
Notable D2C investment: Purplle
Get in touch: Sakshi Chopra
18. Samrath Bedi
Samrath Bedi is the Executive Director of the niche Ayurveda luxury skincare products company, Forest Essentials. In his earlier stints, he worked with Dean Witter Morgan Stanley on a short assignment and then at the Standard Chartered Bank in New York. He returned to India in November 2000 and is associated with Forest Essentials since then.
Notable D2C investment: My Carmesi, Slurrp Farm
Get in touch: Samrath Bedi
19. Sanjay Mehta
As a private investor, Sanjay Mehta has invested in over 150 global start-ups and has seen as many as four of his investments turn unicorns. Currently, he has angel invested in 103 start-ups in diverse sectors. He is also an active member of the Indian Angel Network, Mumbai Angels, B2B 1K Ventures, CIO Angel Network, and Venture Nursery. He is also the founder of 100X.VC.
Notable D2C investment: Sirona Hygiene
Get in touch: Sanjay Mehta
Bonus: https://twitter.com/mehtasanjay/status/1538100294902743040
20. Shaival Desai
Shaival Desai works as the Vice Presidentof Advanced Products and Marketing at PetPooja, a restaurant management software company in India. Previously, Shaival worked as the CEO at Fresco Farms. He is currently working on using growth techniques to increase merchant acquisition at Petpooja.
Notable D2C investment: Pee Safe, Licious
Get in touch: Shaival Desai
21. Sunil Kalra
Sunil Kalra is a Board Member of Innoveda Biological Solutions. He is also a Board Member of Powermat. Sunil has invested in over 70 companies globally over the past 8 years as an independent Angel Investor, working closely with teams to create a strategy, set goals, and build networks. Between 2003 and 2013, he was an active member of the team that set up the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Bidholi, Dehradun district, India, serving both on the Board of Governors and the Board of Finance. Prior to that, for over ten years, he was Managing Director of BSLG, New Delhi, a manufacturer and exporter of leather apparel, and has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world.
Notable D2C investment: My Carmesi
Get in touch: Sunil Kalra
22. Varun Alagh
Varun Alagh is an Indian entrepreneur. He is the founder, chief dad, and get stuff done officer of Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd., a company that owns internet-first personal care brand Mamaearth. Prior to that, Varun has been a part of brands like Coca-cola, Diageo PLC, Unilever, etc. As s student, he had a chance to work with companies like Colgate Palmolive, Havells Electric, Madura Garments, Maruti & Nokia under internships & live projects.
Notable D2C investment: The Sleep Company
Get in touch: Varun Alagh
Bonus: Varun shares his thoughts on startup funding. Read here.
23. Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an angel investor and a self-made Indian billionaire businessman. He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of financial technology company Paytm. Within five years of its inception, Vijay Shekhar Sharma turned around a startup into a billion-dollar company. He was ranked as India’s youngest billionaire in 2017 by Forbes, with a net worth of $1.2 billion. He has been featured in Time Magazine’s World’s 100 Most Influential People 2017 List. In January 2022, the ICANN-supported Universal Acceptance Steering Group appointed him as UA Ambassador in India.
Notable D2C investment: Nurturing Green
Get in touch: Vijay Shekhar
24. Vikas Bagaria
Vikas Bagaria is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned businessman with more than 23 years of experience in setting up and successfully running businesses from scratch. Vikas and his wife Srijana founded PeeSafe – the world’s fastest-growing personal hygiene brand, in 2013. Additionally, he helps Indian Defence, Aerospace, Power Transformer, and Energy companies with Conditional based monitoring systems. He also founded businesses like Forklift, SRV, SafetyKart, and more.
Notable D2C investment: Soxytoes
Get in touch: Vikas Bagaria
25. Vinay Bansal
Finance professional with 20+ years of global experience in Fortune 50 companies, startups, and private equity, Vinay began his career in HUL and subsequently climbed up the ladder to play a paramount role in leading one of the largest finance teams in GE India. He also has hands-on experience in startups, having worked in wildcraft, wherein he played a pivotal role in mentoring the team and turning it into a profitable venture. He is currently the CEO at Inflection Point Ventures.
Notable D2C investment: Rapawalk
Get in touch: Vinay Bansal
