Angel investors and media startups—A relationship study

Angel investors are providing capital for the next generation of media startups to take wings. What will they get out of it?

As VCs have shied away from backing media startups, angels have stepped up

For many angels, the reasons are altruistic and “feel good”. For ticket sizes that are chump change, relatively

Is there anything that media startups want from these investors, other than capital?

Only time will tell

“Sorry, no. Content by itself has no value for us, only views [of it] do,” said a venture capitalist last week to a media startup’s founder, matter-of-factly. “We’re still hesitant on investing in Indian media startups but are slowly leaning towards the possibility of investing in them sometime in the near future.”

The venue was a Hilton hotel in Gurugram, née Gurgaon, and the backdrop was an event titled “Indian Content Startup Conclave 2017.” Just a while ago, a panel had just finished discussing the topic, “Can content become a standalone business in the digital age?”

The founder was flabbergasted.

AUTHOR

Rohin Dharmakumar

Rohin is co-founder and CEO at The Ken. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and an engineering degree in Computer Sciences from the R.V.C.E., Bangalore.

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