Indian Angel Network Launches Startup Competition for Babson College

Affiliated Entrepreneurs

New Delhi, September 18 2018: In an endeavour to bring together innovative minds from all over the
globe, Indian Angel Network, India’s largest horizontal seed stage platform, announces its first Global
Startup Competition for Babson College affiliated entrepreneurs. Babson College has a global student
and alumni base and is the #1 ranked college for entrepreneurship education in the United States. An
equity investment will be awarded to the top qualified startup as determined by IAN.

Leveraging their mutual synergies, the joint initiative between IAN and Babson College is a pitch
competition open to startup companies in any industry and in any location around the world which
are owned, controlled, and/or founded by Babson students, parents, faculty, or alumni. The
Competition will culminate in a virtual finale showcase event involving three or more finalists to be
selected by IAN. IAN, through its investor members as well as any co-investors, will make an equity
investment in the winning company selected by the jury.

In addition to the investment, IAN is committed to providing strategic mentorship to the startup
finalists and to helping them bolster their talent and scale and expand their business operations
globally.

This business competition brings together a pool of entrepreneurs, students, and Babson community
members worldwide that will inform, support, and inspire others to be entrepreneurial and seek
opportunity through enterprise creation globally.

The startup competition is the brainchild of IAN member Sandeep Soni, who believes that this
collaboration will leverage the expertise of IAN and set the tone for coming years. “There is an
unmatched synergy between IAN and Babson, who have committed themselves for years to shaping
the leaders of tomorrow with new knowledge and restless energy, which is a part and parcel of
entrepreneurship at large,” Soni said. “There is such great talent globally, and we cannot wait to
contribute our expertise to support early-stage companies and enable them to scale and expand
globally.”

Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder of IAN and Founding Partner of IAN Fund said, “We are truly delighted
to bring the world’s largest angel investor platform, as well as the IAN fund, to this global competition,
helping companies raise from US$30K to US$7mn. This partnership represents the “startup bridge”
between India and the US, anchored by IAN and Babson College, bringing two entrepreneurial
ecosystems together to create innovative and large scale companies.”

Nurturing early stage entrepreneurial talent with necessary mentoring has been central to IAN's ethos.
Echoing this sentiment, Soni went on to say, “As the Principal Partner, IAN is committed to the
success of this global competition. It will give the winner an opportunity to tap into our global
network of five hundred investors across seven countries and open the door for the winner to
draw on in-depth operational and mentorship experiences.”
“We are so pleased to present the IAN Global Startup Competition to the Babson community
worldwide. As a leader in entrepreneurship education, Babson is committed to creating new,
innovative opportunities for our entrepreneurs and to enabling access to the funding, mentoring, and
support needed to develop leaders and to drive ventures forward,” said Debi Kleiman, Executive
Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College. Kleiman added, “The
collaboration with IAN and the creation of the competition align perfectly with our focus on helping
our entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality.”

Applications to the competition will open in mid-September and the finale of the competition will be
streamed virtually on Saturday, December 15.

About Babson College

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds®.
The top-ranked college for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning
laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of
business and society. We prepare the entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong
functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount
complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an
impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues
to advance Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® as the most positive force on the planet for generating
sustainable economic and social value.

About the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College

The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship accelerates the practice of entrepreneurship by
providing Babson’s emerging entrepreneurs with access to events, workshops, mentoring and
competitions that enable them to test and refine their founder skills. The Butler Launch Pad is the hub
of this entrepreneurial ecosystem, connecting our students and alumni with the broader business and
entrepreneurial community through a series of programs and learning experiences that support our
entrepreneurs along their journey. Included in these programs are two of Babson’s Signature Events:
Rocket Pitch and B.E.T.A. Challenge, as well as the highly regarded Summer Venture Program that
accelerates the top 15 student ventures at Babson each year.

About Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500
members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs.
With investors from 11 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and
UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded startups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other
countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving
excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor-members. Some of its marquee investee companies
include, WebEngage, Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Pandorum and Consure
amongst many others.

Indian Angel Network has been a pioneer in the seed and early stage investing. It has now launched a
₹450 Crores VC fund making it now the single largest platform for seed & early stage, where
entrepreneurs can raise from US$30K to US$7mn (with co-investors), thus making IAN the platform of
choice.

For further information, please contact:

Tripti Sharma | +91 9873271565 | tripti@indianangelnetwork.com