Inflection Point Ventures’ focus on great founders takes it to Tier 2 & 3 towns

• Angel investment platform IPV has 7,295 investors on its platform.
• Average investments of these angel investors is anywhere between Rs 5-7 lakh a year
• More than 10% of IPV’s investments are in startups spread across Tier 2 and 3 towns

Technology has democratised many businesses that were earlier the preserve of a few. Angel investing is one such business that has now become relatively more transparent compared to earlier times and even investors with a ticket size of ₹2.5 lakh a year can now become angel investors. The fallout of this is that great businesses and smart founders now have many more avenues to raise capital without the usual runaround. It is this philosophy that is the driving force behind the four-year-old angel funding platform Inflection Point Ventures (IPV).

Vinay Bansal, CEO and founder of IPV, discovered some obvious pain points that both investors and startup founders faced for the smallest of funding rounds. While the process was tedious for the founders, lack of clarity was a big issue for angel investors. These problems also resulted in a low success rate of startups in India. IPV set out to resolve all three issues with its own unique propositions.

“We decided to solve these problems and started investing in a few startups with a sharp focus so that the founders could grow. We also provided them with mentorships. Some of these startups include the likes of Milk Basket and Fitso that went on to become very successful.”

IPV decided to do things differently to improve the success rate of startups in India, which also improved returns for investors.

In less than four years, IPV has invested in 140 companies and the IRRs (internal rate of returns) are significantly higher compared to many others. India has spawned many unicorns in the last three years, as the pandemic led to innovative models to solve problems thrown up by the lockdowns. India saw 44 unicorns emerge in 2021 and the trend continues in 2022, albeit at a slower pace. Interestingly, the startup bug is not just restricted to the big cities. Today, there’s a startup in each of the 625 districts of India and 50% of these come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns.

IPV is one of the few players that has had its eyes on such players since 2020. Nearly 10% of its portfolio companies come from the hinterland. Born in 2019, this platform has funded some very interesting startups that nobody was willing to bet on – these were from India’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, but were solving problems that are unique to the country’s hinterland. The venture platform is agnostic to sector, stage and geography in which the startup is in. What matters to IPV is the quality of the founder, idea and valuation.

“Great people can come from anywhere and we took bets on startups nobody was betting on back in 2020. We go by great ideas that can come from anywhere, which is why we funded BluSmart in Ahmedabad and Multibhashi from Jaipur. These founders are sharp, smart and hardworking to their core,” explains Bansal.

Thanks to ventures like IPV, television shows like Shark Tank and a media blitzkrieg are helping more startups in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns.

What also makes IPV unique is that its model of raising capital is more broad-based, which is why its investments are not held hostage by any funding winter or moves made by the Federal Reserve. “We want to continue to democratise investments for average Indians who have a ticket size of ₹5 lakh.”

The platform has 7,295 investors on its platform and it continues to grow.

“The way we set ourselves up was to be different from others. We were able to fund even during the pandemic and all these investments are between Series B and D today. We went against the market in 2021 and started exiting from our investments. We don’t work on the dry powder concept as we get funds from salaried investors. Over the last couple of months we have cut million dollar cheques. Winters are good for us as we get access to good companies at better valuations. We have to overcome our fear of investing when others are not,” says Bansal.


The average ticket size that the angel investors cut out each year ranges between ₹5-7 lakh. IPV’s investors come from not just India but also from other countries. To invest, all that the angel investors need to do is fill a form and get started. The process is equally easy for startups that need funding. IPV replies to founders within 20 days of sending an application.

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