Guptaji Invests, an Angel Network of HNIs, NRIs, Professionals and Traditional Business Owners Exclusively of Gupta / Vysya Community Launched

It has onboarded 10 investors, 30 are in the process and aims to onboard 500 in next 12 months

Plans are also on the anvil to create an investment fund of INR 100 crore by the end of the year.

Guptaji Invests, an Angel network of HNIs, NRIs, professionals and traditional business owners exclusively from the Gupta / Vysya community launched in Hyderabad yesterday. The newly launched angel network is something similar to Marwari Angels and JITO Angel Network, a community specific angel network.

Disclosing this in a press note issued in Hyderabad, Mr Ravi Teja Gupta (RTG), an entrepreneur-cum-seed investor said this is India's first Vysya community based Angel Network and accelerator exclusive for Vysya investors. Vysyas are traditionally businessmen. Business is in their DNA. The new generation is shifting away from family businesses, taking up jobs in the corporate world and holding leadership positions across the globe. Guptaji Invests is an opportunity for them to invest in futuristic start-ups with a future full of promises. Guptaji Invests plans to transform the Vysya community into startup investors.

Ravi Teja Gupta

It is a brain child of Ravi Teja Gupta who has been in the startup ecosystem for more than a decade. He worked for various startups and invested in a couple of startups personally. He held a key role in the well known FinTech and HealthTech startups.

In India, there are around 30 active angel networks. Myntra, Khatabook, Wow! Momo, BharatPe companies like these and many have raised funds from angel networks. Our aim is to be one of the active and happening Angel NetworkS in India, said Ravi Teja Gupta.

Elaborating on their plans, Ravi Teja said ‘we target to raise 50 lakhs to one crore investment for each startup. And we would like to support and help 100 startups to raise funds in the first financial year of our operations. Right now we have onboarded ten investors and 30 more investors are already confirmed and are in the process of onboarding. We plan to on board 100 investors in the next one quarter and 500 by the end of the year.

Plans are also on the anvil to create an investment fund from the Gupta community. And we are confident of creating a INR 100 crore fund in the next one year.

Among other things we look into are strategic investments and focus on bridge rounds (short-term rounds to cover up intervals between different rounds of raising funds), co-investments opportunities.

There was a huge request and demand from the community's successful people and organizations, shares Ravi Teja. They were looking for and exploring investment opportunities in the Indian Startup-Ecosystem, which is considered as the 3rd largest start-up ecosystem in the world after the US and China. Guptaji Invests would like to channelize their resources.

Guptaji Invests brings the Business Acumen, Success secrets of Gupta community and their business values. They are successful merchants and traders. They are known for their unwavering grip over hisab kitab. Gupthas dominate the e-commerce space in India. Four of the top 10 e-commerce outfits in India have been founded or co-founded by the people of this business community. The community has defined e-commerce in India. It is also called as the poster boy of Indian e-commerce. The members of this small community dominate the list of India's richest.

LikeMinds Unveils First-Of-Its-Kind Report "The State of Indian Community Management"

Team LM

• 180 community builders, supporting over 4 million members from over 60 regions of India
• The average income of an entry-level brand community manager is 3 - 6 LPA in our country
• One third of the respondents who took the survey identified themselves as female in contrast to the global standards wherein the participation of women in community industry is found to be 2X compared to their other genders
• Hybrid Communities are the future

New Delhi 11th August-2021: LikeMinds, a SaaS startup, which enables creators to convert their audience into a branded private community and monetize it, today, in collaboration with Community Folks unveiled first-of-its-kind survey “The State of Indian Community Management Report” the first-ever study that attempts to quantify and assess the impact of online communities in India and provide exclusive insights for working & aspiring community professionals working in the country. The data for the report was collected from 180 community builders, supporting over 4 million members from over 60 regions of India, and was conducted for more than 40 days (from 14th June 2021 to 24th July 2021).

As per the findings of the report, the Community Industry in India has started to pick up in the last three years and 64% of online communities who participated in the survey were born during this period. After the COVID-19, many brands realigned their strategies and many organizations have started viewing communities as a more vital part of the business. According to 40% of the respondents, many Indian organizations have already started having dedicated community roles to engage with their audiences and build a strong relationships.

What is alarming as per the finding of the State of Indian Community Management report is that more than one-third of the respondents who took the survey identified themselves as female in contrast to the global standards wherein the participation of women in community industry is found to be 2X compared to their other genders. Almost 57% of the respondents experienced a burnout in the first 6-12 months and thus there is dire need of more awareness around self-care. To build a healthy community ecosystem more than 60% of the respondents expressed that there is a need for formal Community Management training programmes. 53% of the respondents shared that they learnt building communities either while serving as volunteers for other communities or while working full-time jobs.

According to the report, around 55% of the respondents feel that webinar fatigue is on the rise and find webinars stressful as they demand continuous participation in the webinars. Many also have complained that they have lost time in what they consider an unproductive task. Most of the respondents are of the view that the future of Community seems to be hybrid, as it unlocks deeper audience engagement provides data-driven insights, nurtures relationships between the community and its audience, and reimagines community for the better tomorrow.

Nipun Goyal, Founder & CEO at LikeMinds, said, “The State of Indian Community Management is a first-of-its-kind survey in India, where we tried to bring out the recent trends and pain points of the community management industry in India. While the community management profession has historically been associated with working for a brand, we have seen a significant rise in this becoming a role that more and more independent professionals and entrepreneurs are taking. Our findings suggest that 48% of such independent community creators are already monetizing their communities. Also, 24% community-led entrepreneurs are earning more than Rs. 10 Lakhs annually from their communities. There is a huge potential in starting a community-led business today.”

Monetized communities are primarily earning by making their events paid (30%), running premium membership (17%), selling their own courses (16%), or doing paid partnerships with businesses (16%). 73% of the community builders in India are hosting events at least on a monthly basis for their communities and the observation is that usually the duration of these events last from 40-60 mins (36%) or 1 - 1.5 hours (36%). The average income of an entry-level brand community manager is 3 - 6 LPA in our country. However, as we climb higher up the hierarchy, the earnings of Senior Community Managers / Program managers range from 15 - 30 LPA.

Paras Pundir, Founder at Community Folks, said, “The community Management industry in India has just started to pick up and there are many open questions that need to be answered. The State Of Indian Community Management is an attempt to help us fill those gaps and understand it to the core. 50 years down the line when anyone will talk about the inception of the Community Industry in India, this report release will be the pioneering moment that would be reflected on during the conversations.”

The report can be downloaded for free from this link: https://bit.ly/37xFiRf

About LikeMinds: Gurugram-based LikeMinds was founded in 2020 by Nipun Goyal, IIT Delhi Alumni, previously Co-founder at Curofy, who is also a successful serial entrepreneur and angel investor with over a dozen investments including 4 YC-backed venturers. It aims to fuel India’s creator’s economy through it’s SaaS platform that delivers all the tools any community builder needs to effectively manage and monetize their communities. The venture currently has 35 employees and already boasts of 100+ creators as its customers. Custom integrations are also available for creators with existing assets. Website: https://likeminds.community/