Anil Joshi, Founder and Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, has been an active angel investor and part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem for more than a decade. He was President of Mumbai Angels, a leading network of angel investors, and was also instrumental in setting up Bangalore Angels. In those roles, he helped close over 50 deals.
Anil, 41, launched Unicorn India Ventures, which will invest from ₹50 lakh to ₹5 crore in early-stage ventures. Unicorn has finished the first close of its ₹100-crore fund and warehoused three deals, which it has not yet announced. Unicorn will invest in ventures focussed on the social media, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) space in industry parlance.
He says there has been a dramatic change in the crop of entrepreneurs now compared to about a decade ago. Earlier, those starting out on their own were in their mid-30s or early 40s, now they are fresh out of college. The entrepreneurs about a decade ago had corporate experience and were starting ventures to solve some problems they had experienced. Now, the entrepreneurs were coming up with disruptive technologies and looking to digitise the way everything is done, right from ordering your food to how you consume things.
Education: I did my engineering from Birla Vishwakarma Mahavidyalaya, SP University, and Management from MET, Mumbai, and then Strategic Finance and Control from ICFAI.
Prior experience: I have a mix of corporate experience and angel investing. I have worked in Century Rayon; Business Access India, a business consultancy that assisted companies from Scandinavia; Transasia Bio-Medical, a leading diagnostic company; Artheon Ventures, a diversified business group focussed on telecom, IT and energy; and Mumbai Angels, a network of wealthy individuals who invested in and mentored start-ups.
Sectors interested in: At Unicorn, we are focussing on the SMAC space as we believe that is where the next wave of IT is going to be. SMAC technologies are redefining enterprise IT and will remain the driving force of enterprise-level IT for decades to come. SMAC technologies are transforming companies today, while simultaneously preparing them for the business challenges tomorrow.
Investments: In my personal capacity, I have invested in ventures such as Qubecell, Exotel, ShepHertz, Hotelogix and NowFloats.
Typical working day: My day starts with a half-hour yoga session followed by a quick glance at the newspapers. Though my office work starts at 10 am, concalls and e-mails start once I leave home for work. Typically, on an average, I meet three to four entrepreneurs every day, but now most of the time is spent on meeting Limited Partners across the country.
Hobbies: I love reading or watching TV.
Gadgets: I use Windows, Android and iOS.
Advice to entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurs should be clear on what problem they are solving and what differentiates them from others in doing that. It is easy to be me-too, but having differentiation helps take one away from the crowd and on to a different growth trajectory. While businesses are dependent on money as one of the resources, the ultimate growth driver is the customer and that too the paying customer. Hence, I always tell entrepreneurs to just focus on the business and create value for all; valuation will follow automatically.