StartupCentral

In a step towards broadening its investment strategy, Indian Angel Network (IAN) will now look at slightly smaller deal ticket sizes to cater to startups in the mobile and Internet segments. It will invest a little over $150,000 in two dozen such startups, said a press release. The angel network has so far restricted itself to ticket sizes of between $400,000 and $600,000, going up to $1 million in some cases.

The climbdown in deal ticket sizes appears to be a reaction to the current frenzy in India around Internet startups, particularly in the ecommerce segment. Valuations have been moving north since last year and venture capitalists are under pressure to find deals earlier on in the game and ensure that entry valuations remain reasonable.

IAN is currently scouting entrepreneurial ventures that require $150,000 to test out their ideas. Entrepreneurs can send their business plans to info (at) indiaangelnetwork (dot) com. Shortlisted applicants will have an opportunity to pitch their plans to IAN members in Delhi next month. Some of the prominent angel investors within the IAN network include Raman Roy, Jerry Rao, Pramod Bhasin and institutions such as Intel, IBM and Sidbi. The network has invested in 25-odd companies so far.

Indian Angel Network has invested $1 million in Bangalore-based embedded software tool developer Vayavya Labs. The company will use the funds to expand its suite of tools for electronic systems level design and strengthen sales and marketing, said a press release. Former Yahoo India R&D head Sharad Sharma and Vivek Raghavan, who currently heads Magma Design Automation, will represent IAN on the Vayavya board.

The company was founded in 2006 by RK Patil, Venugopal Kolathur, Uma Bondada and Parag Naik, all engineers with several years of industry experience. It currently has 20 engineers engaged in embedded software design and development. Its software facilities in Belgaum and Bangalore employ 70 professionals. It counts Trident, Synopsys, NDS and Electra among its customers.

Sharma, who is currently an entrepreneur-in-residence with Canaan Partners, and Raghavan have been mentoring the company prior to the deal. TiE Bangalore was a catalyst in bringing IAN and Vayavya’s founders together. With this investment, IAN notches up its total deal tally to 25.

The country’s first multi-city bootcamp, organized by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Springboard Ventures, concluded on Sunday after an 8-week run across different cities. Over 13,000 people participated in the camps, which offered entrepreneurs an opportunity to engage with angel investors from the IAN network. The initiative also included a contest to pick startups most ready for angel funding.

Here are the winners of the contest:

Heckyl

Mumbai-based Heckyl Technologies provides real-time financial information, analytics, etc. to enable better investment decisions. Heckyl was judged the national winner of the contest.

Flo2Go

Delhi-based Flo2Go Technology, founded by Pradeep Shankar, is a mobile media consumption platform that enables sharing of high-quality music and videos using social networking communities. The company was judged runner-up in the contest.

Cool Junk

Delhi-based CoolJunk Technologies makes do-it-yourself education kits to make learning fun in school. The company has been founded by Gurpawan Mand and Vaibhav Sharma. It was judged a runner-up in the contest.

Indian Angel Network has announced an investment (amount undisclosed) in Toronto-based Jigsee, a provider of adaptive video streaming technology for wireless devices in developing countries. The company, founded by Ray Newal and Areef Reza, has successfully tested its technology in India and Bangladesh. The technology delivers continuous video streams in low-bandwidth environments (with data rates as low as 50 kbps).

The company will use the capital from IAN to expand its India presence. Jigsee version 1.1 is currently available for download via application stores such as GetJar and OVI ad makes video playlists accessible to Java 2 platform, micro edition (j2me) devices from manufacturers like Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Micromax.  The upcoming release of version 2.0 in April will extend support to Android devices and will also include premium content from top-tier broadcasters. Jigsee founders Newal and Reza earlier worked at Yahoo! and Nortel Networks and RIM respectively.

This is IAN’s first deal in 2011 and its fourth outside India. Rehan yar Khan will represent IAN on the Jigsee board. So far the angel investing platform has backed 23 startups and made five successful exits.

The Indian Angel Network will host a workshop at the end of this month on human resource challenges for startups in Delhi. Details:

Theme: HR Challenges for Startups

Speaker: Sameer Sikka, Xntuate Solutions

Registration Fee: Rs 250 per delegate

Date: Friday, January 28, 2011

Time & Venue: 3.00 pm to 5.00 pm at NITEE, New Delhi

Register here