UpGrad, an online education startup co-founded by entrepreneur and private investor Ronnie Screwvala, has tied up with the online deal making platform LetsVenture to introduce an angel investing course.
“In the discussions with LetsVenture, we realised that there are a large space of individuals who want to become angel investors, but lacked the necessary skill sets, understanding and knowledge. This experiential program will give them exposure and bring in the best angel practices, both the global and Indian,” said Mayank Kumar, co-founder and MD of UpGrad.
The duration of the online course will be four to six weeks. “If most startups don’t get seeded, they are not going to go to the next level. We need to bring to the spotlight that the angel ecosystem has to be robust and we need to bring a lot more people in the sector. The intent of the course is to bring some sort of structure and sanity,” said Screwvala.
The course aims to be a platform for aspiring, amateur and mature angel investors. It wants to ‘bring science’ into angel investing. The startup wants to rope in mature entrepreneurs to be ‘guest lecturers’. “It’s about sharing experiences. People want to know from other people’s mistakes, from other people’s experiences. There will be a lot for the Indian environment too,” said Screwvala.
“We are seeing a high trend of people who want to get into angel investing. Upgrad had done an entrepreneurship course last year, so we wanted to partner with someone who understood this space. We will provide the content and subject matter expertise. It’s a win-win partnership for both of us,” said Shanti Mohan, CEO of LetsVenture.
The partnership was announced on the sidelines of LetsIgnite, an event designed for investors to meet like-minded peers and interact with prescreened start-ups. The launch date for the program is yet to be decided.
Source: The Economic Times
