Meet Padmaja Ruparel, The Brain Behind One of India's Largest Investor Networks

Meet our BusinessMAKER, Padmaja Ruparel. She is a key player in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and has co-founded many institutions, besides being an active angel investor herself.

Born and raised in Kolkata, Padmaja started as an entrepreneur by building her family-owned real estate business. She started her corporate journey in Delhi and in addition to working in various fields within the corporate sector, she also operationalised TiE Delhi and played a key role as Executive Director in building the Indian Venture Capital Association, eventually co-founding Indian Angel Network (IAN), India's first & now possibly one of the world’s largest group of business angels.

Ruparel co-founded IAN in 2006, which today boasts of close to 500 investors from 12 countries and a portfolio of 135+ companies in 7 countries, spanning across 17 sectors.

Today, Padmaja is counted amongst India’s prominent investors and a key enabler in India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Over the years, she has been featured in numerous women in business and power lists by leading media platforms. She is also Co-chair of Global Business Angel Network (GBAN) and also helped in creating Lankan Angel Network in Sri Lanka.Padmaja also actively engages with the Indian government. She also acknowledges and has been vocal about doubling down on inclusion and diversity in India’s workforce and has been using her position to be a key enabler in that aspect too.

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(Interviewed and produced by Varnika Gupta, video edited by Anjali)