Droom founder to invest in 10-12 startups

Droom founder Sandeep Aggarwal and his family office have invested over Rs 25 crore in 18 startups, and they are looking at backing about 10-12 companies a year to support the burgeoning startup ecosystem in the country. Speaking to PTI, Aggarwal said he, in his personal capacity and via his family office, has invested more than Rs 25 crore over the past few years across 18 startups that operate in the segments like tech, fintech, healthcare and media content.

"When I came to India in 2011, India had less than 200 startups, a handful of VCs and angel investors, and the value of all public and private companies was less than 3 billion. I believe India will create $500 billion in new wealth by 2025 and $1 trillion by 2030 from the startup revolution," he added.

More than wealth creation, the amount of job creation, social transformation, and helping India to reclaim its old glory will be second to none, he added. Some of Aggarwal's investments include US-based Venture Capital firm - Lionbird, India-based full-stack cloud garage startup Fixcraft, B2B e-commerce player in the aftermarket tyre vertical - Tyreplex, media and content company TSB Media Ventures, and DNA-based data storage solution Iridia among others. In 2016, Aggarwal had invested close to Rs 4 crore in more than seven early-stage firms in India and overseas such as California-based firms Giveclub and Dataguise, Malaysia-based Duriana, Indonesia-based Dekoruma, and India-based Wittyfeed, Clan Connect, Wydr, Curo healthcare, and Shopsity. Aggarwal noted that while many of the investments made in the earlier years were in personal capacity, the new ones are routed through his family office, Digital Karma and process is on for bringing together all the investments under the family office.