Beej Network to invest $3 mn in start-ups

Chennai: Angel investing firm, Beej Network has planned to invest Rs 24 cr (over $3 mn) in 24 early-stage start-ups by the end of this year. The firm provides financial aid to start-ups through integrated resources. This in turn fills the gap in the financial early-stage funding ecosystem.

Co-founders Nikhil Jain, Nikhil Sethia, KVT Ramesh, and PS Suman set up Beej Network around six months ago after cutting their teeth in the angel investing space for over four years with a portfolio of 60+ start-ups. Presently, Beej has an investor base of over 400 investors with 10 start-ups in their portfolio.

“We started Beej Network with one goal — to bring leverage to revolutionary start-ups. Our focus is towards building a high-value generating ecosystem,” said Jain. The firm is pitching itself as a bridge to facilitate big-ticket investments for high-growth start-ups. At the same time, it also prompts first-gen investors new to the idea of start-up investments by welcoming funding as low as Rs 3 lakh.

Jain goes on to add, “At Beej, we have various rounds of assessments before we decide to fund a start-up. We follow a sector agnostic approach, keeping the quality of the start-up as the primary criterion of evaluation. We pay attention to the founding team, their experience, and hunger- that’s 40% of our due diligence. We also look for scalability - if they are capable of making a dent in the market.”