We Founder Circle, Avinya Ventures co-founder Neeraj Tyagi passes away

We Founder Circle, Avinya Ventures co-founder Neeraj Tyagi passes away

Entrepreneur and investor Neeraj Tyagi, who co-founded investment platforms like We Founder Circle, Avinya Ventures, and Invstt, passed away on August 16 at the age of around 50 years old.

The cause of his death was not immediately known.

Tyagi was a familiar name in India’s early-stage investment circles, having spent close to a decade mentoring founders and backing young startups. At We Founder Circle (WFC), he helped build one of the most active angel networks in the country, facilitating over 100 startup deals in the last three years.

He also co-founded Invstt, a digital platform that sought to make startup investing more accessible and claims to have onboarded more than 27,000 investors across 66 countries and 900 cities. Avinya Ventures, the venture capital firm he co-founded, extended his focus on institutionalising early-stage investing.

While Moneycontrol is awaiting a statement from the company, some industry participants on social media hinted that he might have suffered a heart attack.

Beyond his institutional roles, Tyagi was an active angel investor himself. According to his LinkedIn profile, he made more than 60 personal investments, placing early bets on companies such as BluSmart, Rooter, Zypp Electric, Oben Electric, Anveshan, ClearDekho, and HealthySure.

He was also known to play an active role in connecting his portfolio companies with global pools of capital, often leading startup delegations to hubs like London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, and Dubai.

Tyagi’s untimely passing adds to a growing list of sudden losses in India’s startup community in recent times.

In January this year, Amit Banerji, founder and CEO of workspace solutions provider Table Space, passed away.

In December 2024, Rohan Mirchandani, co-founder of Epigamia, died following a cardiac arrest. Just two months before that, Rohan Malhotra, co-founder and managing partner of Good Capital, also passed away unexpectedly.

In August 2024, Ambareesh Murty, the 51-year-old co-founder of Pepperfry, succumbed to a cardiac arrest while on a biking trip in Leh.

Before launching his own platforms, Tyagi was managing partner at Venture Catalysts, one of India’s earliest angel investment networks, where he was involved in fundraising for more than 200 companies. Earlier in his career, he ran a content production business that worked with large corporates including Microsoft, Google, Network18, and Whirlpool.

He was also a frequent presence at startup events and academic institutions, often speaking as a mentor and panelist at industry chambers and leading campuses such as IITs and IIMs. He held a management degree and had completed executive education at the MIT Sloan School of Management.