Start-ups and its financing have been an area of policy importance for the Government of India in recent years. The thrust of the government policy making can also be seen in the impact – India has emerged as one of the largest as well as fastest growing start-up ecosystems in the world. In this research and documentation project, it is proposed to trace the Start-up policy evolution and how it has emerged as one of the important pillars for the government. While Start-ups also remain as an area of interest for the various state governments, this documentation and research would largely focus on the “Start-up Program” of the Government of India. The research would be conducted mainly through a detailed analysis and study of various secondary sources, archives and policy documents pertaining to Start-up India. However, given the thrust for documenting the intellectual underpinnings behind this policy imperative, we would also be conducting telephonic interviews with key administrators and members of the government who were part of developing the Start-up Policy over the years. Furthermore, we would also be analysing the impact of the policy based on data obtained from various sources.

Angel investments are increasingly getting specialized. In recent years, start-ups are raising pre-seed funding before seed-stage funding. Investors in pre-seed and seed-stage companies commonly are angel investors. Majority of the angel investors prefer syndicated investments than standalone investments for the benefits that are brought in by the investors in terms of finance and diversified value-added services. But an index that gauges the robustness of the angel investments syndication by capturing its multi-dimensional aspects is not yet seen. Further, though India being third largest startup ecosystem of the world, the literature on angel investments are at very nascent stage. Hence this study aims to address these gaps by analysing the differences between these two groups of angel investors, by developing a composite syndication index encompassing multi-dimensional aspects of the syndication, factors driving the angel investment decision, in the context of Indian startups.

Three critical aspects of venture capital investments are valuation, security selection, structuring, and exit. Valuing a new venture with limited information is always difficult. The process of valuing a venture and writing contracts between VC and Entrepreneur is an intensive process. Since India receives a significant pile of capital inflows, tax implications in VC investments need be considered. The VC hopes to design a contract that reflects the firm's true value, protect investments on the downside, and reflects all of this in the exit returns. It's fascinating to learn about start-up valuation and the signals that VCs consider before investing. The information asymmetry in venture capital investments has been extensively explored. Securities and the capital structure enable entrepreneurs and investors to optimise their incentives. Contracts, in particular, mitigate downside risk for investors. Given the tax implications, security selection and structuring is a critical component of venture capital investing. These risk mitigation strategies should reflect in the returns when they exit from the venture.