Beyond financial support Established in August 2020, WFC is a global community of over 2,000 founders and strategic angels from over 16 countries, which provides seed funding, strategic business partnerships and global networking opportunities to entrepreneurs at an early stage, thus ensuring a 360-degree support system of investments, business prospects and community. Born in the pandemic with a sector-agnostic approach, WFC has backed startups from over 10 sectors, including fintech, healthtech, agrotech, EV, D2C, etc.
Neeraj Tyagi, co-founder and CEO, We Founder Circle, explains the founders’ mantra, saying, “Gaurav VK Singhvi (co-founder) and I have together invested in 105 startups over the last five years. We understand that as investors, you need to go beyond just providing capital support; you also need to mentor a budding company on the business front. In order to ensure this, we started WFC with an aim to help new startups connect with strategic angels and founders of established firms.”
Given the changing trends in the startup ecosystem, even family offices are investing in unique startups. “We want to open avenues for investments from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities which can encourage this burgeoning community. I am from Surat, and I understand that the local business community and SMEs have a lot of interest and desire to join the mainstream. So, business investments that can bring capital and experience can provide value addition to startups,” Singhvi adds.
The way ahead WFC recently launched its first global accelerator programme, called EvolveX, to bolster startup growth with guaranteed funding, mentoring and global corporate connections. It has also invested in three global startups already. “While we attracted over 2,000 angel investors from 16 countries, we also launched several global chapters across the US, UK, UAE, Australia and Singapore. Though our primary focus remains India, we will soon begin investing in global businesses too,” said Bhawna Bhatnagar, head of global partnerships and co-founder at WFC.
In the first quarter of 2022, WFC plans to launch its much-awaited tech platform for angels and the startup community, wherein they can interact, co- create and invest seamlessly. “Our tech driven community platform will empower startups and investors from across the globe, thereby engaging and democratising the ecosystem transactions,” said Deo Saurabh, tech head and co-founder, WFC.
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