ET in the Valley: AngelList rethinks India play as new rules impact investing
AngelList founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi is reassessing its India strategy as the country implements fresh regulations that could change how individual investors participate in early-stage angel deals. In an interview with ET at the company's San Francisco headquarters, chief executive Avlok Kohli said AngelList's India arm continues to operate as an independent, self-contained entity, but noted that the global leadership is paying closer attention as the country pushes ahead with reforms in angel investing.
"We still own a majority of AngelList India, though the model there is more decentralised."
AngelList once ran investment syndicates across several countries but later narrowed its focus to the US as regulatory requirements in other geographies became more demanding. "We've worked with Indian VC funds and startups indirectly, but the compliance layers are heavy. We'll watch closely as those rules evolve," Kohli said. AngelList India manages $265 million of assets and has backed more than 800 startups, Kohli said, adding that the platform has returned over a quarter of all invested capital to its investors on its syndicate.
Also Read: Angel investors in India will become rarer than tigers
Earlier this year, the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) mandated angel funds to increase minimum cheque sizes, refined eligibility norms for investors impacting platforms like AngelList and others. At the same time, discussions have been underway on how syndicates and special purpose vehicles (SVPs) should operate, and what level of information should be disclosed to investors.
Many in the sector believe that the impact of these changes will determine whether pre-seed and seed funding expands or becomes more constrained over time.
Despite regulatory complexity, India stays an important market for AngelList. "India remains an important market for us," Kohli said. "AngelList India operates separately because of local rules. We hope to do more there once the framework for fund flows becomes smoother." He added that India's technical talent pipeline remains strong and that many Indian founders now divide their time between India and the US to access customers and capital more effectively. Even as India grapples with these questions, AngelList globally has undergone a major shift. Since 2019, the company has transitioned from being a marketplace that enabled syndicates to one of the most widely used back-end software platforms in venture capital. "We power a very large portion of the infrastructure in the venture now," Kohli said.
Also Read: Sebi extends deadline to Jan 2026 to disclose allocation methodology by angel funds
"What began as a single-product company is now a multi-product platform. We've been profitable for more than two years and are launching three adjacent businesses tied to our fund-management stack."
The platform now helps large VC firms manage long-term fund operations, including legal and tax structures, banking workflows, investor onboarding, reporting, and distribution of returns. It works with multiple major banks and is onboarding one of the world's largest banks to deepen its financial capabilities. That shift began after the 2022 interest-rate spike in the US, which froze the IPO window and caused AngelList's revenue to fall nearly 80% in a month. "The crisis forced us to rebuild," Kohli said. "It turned out to be the best thing. We became profitable and built a more resilient business."
"We still own a majority of AngelList India, though the model there is more decentralised."
AngelList once ran investment syndicates across several countries but later narrowed its focus to the US as regulatory requirements in other geographies became more demanding. "We've worked with Indian VC funds and startups indirectly, but the compliance layers are heavy. We'll watch closely as those rules evolve," Kohli said. AngelList India manages $265 million of assets and has backed more than 800 startups, Kohli said, adding that the platform has returned over a quarter of all invested capital to its investors on its syndicate.
Also Read: Angel investors in India will become rarer than tigers
Earlier this year, the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) mandated angel funds to increase minimum cheque sizes, refined eligibility norms for investors impacting platforms like AngelList and others. At the same time, discussions have been underway on how syndicates and special purpose vehicles (SVPs) should operate, and what level of information should be disclosed to investors.
Many in the sector believe that the impact of these changes will determine whether pre-seed and seed funding expands or becomes more constrained over time.
Despite regulatory complexity, India stays an important market for AngelList. "India remains an important market for us," Kohli said. "AngelList India operates separately because of local rules. We hope to do more there once the framework for fund flows becomes smoother." He added that India's technical talent pipeline remains strong and that many Indian founders now divide their time between India and the US to access customers and capital more effectively. Even as India grapples with these questions, AngelList globally has undergone a major shift. Since 2019, the company has transitioned from being a marketplace that enabled syndicates to one of the most widely used back-end software platforms in venture capital. "We power a very large portion of the infrastructure in the venture now," Kohli said.
Also Read: Sebi extends deadline to Jan 2026 to disclose allocation methodology by angel funds
"What began as a single-product company is now a multi-product platform. We've been profitable for more than two years and are launching three adjacent businesses tied to our fund-management stack."
The platform now helps large VC firms manage long-term fund operations, including legal and tax structures, banking workflows, investor onboarding, reporting, and distribution of returns. It works with multiple major banks and is onboarding one of the world's largest banks to deepen its financial capabilities. That shift began after the 2022 interest-rate spike in the US, which froze the IPO window and caused AngelList's revenue to fall nearly 80% in a month. "The crisis forced us to rebuild," Kohli said. "It turned out to be the best thing. We became profitable and built a more resilient business."
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