Exclusive: An Angel investor whose Midas touch with Crypto-currency is redefining the future of start-up investments

Sanjay Mehta has been a ‘full-time investor’ since the past four years before quitting his last entrepreneurial venture. He loves entrepreneurship for its process, “I really enjoy ‘proxy entrepreneurship’, which means that I can enable many people to start their ventures and help them create a stable business,’’ he says.

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Mehta is excited about the business building process and thinks that the best part about starting a business is seeing it grow from seed stage to $2-5 million businesses where you enjoy the journey of creating something that has its own identity. He also believes that this is the hardest part, “Their sheer enthusiasm rubs off on me and I learn a lot by listening to their ideas. I get personal gratification by seeing them give in to their belief and giving up the best years of their lives,” he says, at peace.

With 66 start-up portfolio companies namely Zippr, Box8, WowMomos, AdstringO, UnBxd, Consure Medical Device, Oyo Rooms, PrettySecrets.com, Letsventure.com, MechMocha, Faballey.com, PayTunes, LogiNext, RepUp, Adsparx, Ecosense, PeeBuddy and more; Mehta is a regular target for aspiring founders and more so after his successful exit from Oyo Rooms whose founder Ritesh Aggarwal, became famous for being a 21-year old founder.

From an exit perspective, Oyo was the biggest exit for any Indian angel investor at 280 x of the investment made which was last year. He is very practical with his investments and thinks that a 100 x exit from a start-up is successful but that’s not why he does it; he sounds like a proud parent when he talks about his investments.

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He is very practical in his outlook for the start-up ecosystem, “In terms of Startup India, I don’t think the government has done enough especially to ease the pains of doing business. I’m appreciative of this government because not only have they started a dialogue in the country, they have also started adopting new technologies made in India, at a state and national level which is a supportive move, ”he beams.

Mehta as an investor is bullish about Crypto currency, Universal utilities, FMCG brands that sell online, Medical devices, Pharma, Ed-tech, Media, and entertainment, as sectors and believes that India is on the cusp of innovative products and this is just the beginning.
Sanjay has a good eye for innovation and thinks product start-ups like Freshdesk and Druva have already started the start-up revolution that is driven by innovative products that will propel India to be world’s start-up destination.

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You can reach Sanjay Mehta on Twitter- @mehtasanjay or on LinkedIn, where he writes regular opinion articles on the start-up ecosystem.