Anand Chandrasekaran, former partner at General Catalyst, has emerged as the top angel investor for the third consecutive year in India to have 20 investments into upcoming unicorns, according to Hurun India Future Unicorn Index 2024, released on June 20.
Major soonicorns in his portfolio include SaaS Labs, MoEngage, Safe Security, and InVideo.
Kunal Bahl came a close second with 11 investments into upcoming unicorns. This year, Bahl has beaten Kunal Shah to rise to the second rank. Bahl’s prominent investments as an angel include Bira 91, MoEngage, Shadowfax and Agristar.
Shah has nine future unicorns in his kitty, these are Scaler, Khatabook, Mosaic Wellness, and Dezerv to name a few.
Other angel investors featured among the top were Jupiter founder Jitendra Gupta with seven future unicorns in his portfolio, Snapdeal Co-founder Rohit Bansal and Livspace co-founder Ramakant Sharma, each with seven soonicorns in their portfolio.
On the professional front, Chandrasekaran had recently stepped down as partner of General Catalyst after a stint of three years. He will now serve as a Venture Advisor to the US-based investor as he intends to spend more time building his own artificial intelligence (AI) startup, Crescendo.
Chandrasekaran earlier worked as an Airtel, Meta, and Snapdeal executive. He used to lead General Catalyst’s investments in the United States and India.
Future unicorns
A record 25 upcoming unicorns dropped out of the list of Hurun India Future Unicorn Index 2024, reflecting an industry-wide funding winter that triggered a correction in the valuation of a host of startups.
Some of the prominent startups to have dropped out include Dunzo, Koo, Gaana, Bizongo, Rapido, Practo, WayCool, Paper Boat, Dotpe, to name a few.
Only three startups turned unicorns this year with a valuation of over $1 billion each, including quick commerce startup Zepto, fintech startup InCred Finance and logistics startup Porter.
Peak XV Partners, Accel and Tiger Global Management were the top venture capital investors for 2024, with the highest number of future unicorns in the portfolio.
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