We Founder Circle is an online community approach of investing in startups. We help investors to invest in filtered start-ups from various industries, alongside some of the most strategic investors & successful founders, thus increasing the chances of a successful outcome.

WFC is backed by a powerful & easy to use Tech Platform making it easy for the investors across the globe to participate & engage with founders.

WFC has successful founders & investors onboard who have built successful businesses and raised multiple rounds of funds. And so the best of the founders prefer to raise funds from our community.

And so because of the best startup opportunities from the market, a lot of successful Founders, Investors, Accelerators, & Corporates are fast joining the Global Community of WFC.

It will help in generating business synergies by providing access to the services offered by other portfolio companies diversified into different industries.

Through its global community, WFC aims to create brand visibility and increase the demand and acceptance for the products of portfolio companies through collaborative investment knowledge and network.

WFC focuses beyond seed funding & ensures an integrated approach to build high growth startup companies. We offer a business growth ecosystem that included:

i. Investment : Seed Fund, Accelerator Program, Angels & VCs Connect

ii. Business : Corporate PoC, Collaborations, Offers & Deals

iii. Networking : Startup Map, Founders meetup, Mentoring

WFC provides multi-domain expertise through a diversified network of distinguished Businessmen, Professionals & HNIs spanning across various geographies, industries and areas of expertise, hence higher chances of success is associated with WFC Investments.

A low cost model to be a part of the network.Allow investors to start investing with smaller sums as the funding is pooled by the group of investors, still making it meaningful for a given startup.

Provides Credibility and Networking, as you will be participating alongside successful founders & strategic investors.

Angels get an active participation in business building as we encourage the startups to work closely with our community members guidance & mentoring.

WFC not only provides investment solutions, but also aims at providing various business development as well as provides a vast network of diverse individuals. WFC is well recognized because of the following 3 features.

Investments/ Funding:

• Seed Fund upto $100K-150k USD
• Access to Global Accelerator Programs
• Access to accredited Angels & VCs

Business:

• Corporate Innovation & Business Development
• Access to Global CXOs Network
• Peer to Peer Sales

Networking:

• Access to Cross Border Founders Community
• Global Mentors & Peer-to-Peer Learning

By filling out the WFC membership form online. The member should fill the complete profile in the form (for example contact details, PAN Card, Aadhar Card details, etc).

Engagement/Introductory Call is scheduled with one of the WFC’s Founders.

The investor needs to sign two other documents at the time of becoming a member:

• Power of Attorney (PoA)
• Membership Framework

However, the WFC Management reserves the right to allow any members to join or continue with the membership.

The only fees that investors pay is the transaction fees charged by WFC on the amount invested by a potential investor, during the time of investment.

The price for Transaction Fees is : 2% of investment amount by an individual + 18% GST

WFC members have access to curated startup pitches regularly.

Various knowledge series & webinars are arranged for the members to gain expertise

Members have access to evaluation reports.

Members will be given quarterly update call/status notes from invested startups.

WFC makes sure that legal and financial compliances are not neglected by the startups to safeguard the best interests of investors.

Members/ Investors can have an added benefit to explore various business opportunities and synergies with WFC’s Portfolio companies and the WFC’s Member Network.

A global community network effect is one of the biggest advantages that we offer, as we put a lot of effort in curating diverse background experts who have a very proressive mindset. Our community has a good blend of successful founders, CXOs, new age digital skill experts, family offices, marquee investors & influencers across the world.

When their own money is invested by an Angel in a startup in exchange for equity or debt, it is termed as Angel Investing. Normally Angel Investment is for 3-5 years with the goal of profiting from the growth of the startup.

The benefits of Angel Investing are:

• Investment in the alternate new age asset class.
• Earning Probability of multibagger returns on investments.
• Building strategic business alliances with the startups.
• Mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs.
• Creating impact on society and contributing to strengthening the economy by way of increasing wealth and job creation.

Angels invest in early stage ventures or startups where they see a potential for the company to grow, they complement the family and friends’ money. VC Funds invest in later stages of the company – beyond the stage of proof of concept, and at levels that are beyond the level of angels investing.

Venture Funds are targeted by their investors to invest in specific areas / sectors. Angel investors look at investing in diverse domains, and would consider investing in any area where some of their members have expertise.

After the investments are made, VC funds give direction and look for an exit through an IPO, Strategic sales, M&A. Angel investing continues – individuals invest as long as they wish. They, however, look at a 2 to 3 year exit and the most common exits are strategic buyouts / mergers & acquisitions.

The VC funding process is more complex as they are funds and have a statutory framework within which they work. Angel investing provides for a simpler process as angel investments are an alternative asset class for individuals and the angels invest directly in the investee companies.

Angels prefer companies with

• Novel business concepts & products and disrupting ideas.
• High growth, fast scalable and less capital intensive businesses.
• Experience and knowledgeable founding team.
• Market size, demand and repeat sales capacity of the product.

Develop a personal investment thesis.

Don’t just invest money, invest time to understand the startup and build relation with the community.

Diversify. Never put all eggs in one basket. Invest in multiple companies of varied sectors.

Connect with the founders and be part of their journey.

Think and take decisions based on longer timeframe horizons.

Successful start-ups move to the next rounds of funding called Series A, series B and beyond. A typical exit comes when a larger investor from these rounds buys your shares. An exit time frame may vary from 3-5 years.

At times, the start-ups business catches the attention of a large strategic investor; traditional corporate or other well-funded start-ups for its strategic value and an acquisition takes place, providing exit to early stage investors.

New avenues such as MSME listing on stock exchanges have come up, which over a period of time are likely to become a platform for liquidity.

Angels invest their own money and are more often than not entrepreneurs themselves. VC Funds have now adopted a model where they have people with domain expertise / thought leadership in a sector to advise them on deal flows and then nurture companies.

When Angels come together and invest, it helps the Angel community:

• In gaining access to better deal with the startups.
• It helps to make more sizable and meaningful investment and participate in larger funding rounds.
• It lowers the risk in investing as Angels can start with small capital and still be part of a successful syndication and create a portfolio.
• It increases investment diversification.
• It increases their ability to conduct better due diligence.
• It provides hassle free pre investment and post investment processes; as the angel platform takes care of all activities from screening, due diligence, negotiation on terms, legal paperwork for investment to post investment reporting and periodic sharing of updates and connecting to Venture Capital firms for next round.
• It gives more power to control the success of the startups.
• The collective synergy of the angels helps the startups in building strategic alliances and providing guidance at varied cycles of their business.
• The networking in the community helps in gaining experience and alliances between the members of the group

The size of the market for the product and if there is a measurable set of customers for the product.

Check for the competition for the product/ service and check if the product is capable of overtaking the existing competitor in the market.

The experience and knowledge of the founding team with respect to the product.

To check if the idea is disruptive in nature and will it solve an existing problem. Is the problem big enough and requires a solution. Will there be repeat purchases?

To check if the customers will pay for getting the solution.

Is there a planned roadmap for the next 6-12 months? If yes, how effective is it?

Licenses for production, distribution and necessary compliances are adhered to. Scope of all Liability and litigation is avoided.

Business Moat.

Proprietary Technology (if any), Valuable intellectual property – IP protected by patents, trade secrets, or the barrier of time to replicate

Potential exit opportunities

In order to close the Share Subscription and Shareholders Agreement (SSSHA) signing with the startup, we request you to give power of attorney (PoA) for matters as described in the attached form. POA will be used for giving effect the execution of agreements/documents (includes TS, SSSHA and any other document/agreement related to investment or exit), performing rights, duties and obligations of the investor (includes appointment/removal of director). However, please note that all allotment of shares will be directly on your name as per ROC compliances.

All exit transactions will be taken only after approval from the investor.

The investment process through WFC is straightforward.

• Soft Committing during Pitch Session – The deals that are pitched are the open investment opportunities for investors to review. Investor(s) may express their commitment to any representative from WFC preferably over an email.
• Commitment during Deep Dive Call Sessions – If a potential investor wants to engage with the founder to have more details in order to arrive at a decision then, the same is facilitated by WFC’s Team (both partners and central team). After this stage we expect an email confirmation of investment commitment from angels.
• Third Party Due Diligence – As the deal generates interest from the investors and ~50% Commitments are received, the third party due diligence is initiated to safeguard the best interest of investors.
• SHA Creation – Once the commitments for the current round in a startup are complete, WFC ensures receiving a positive due diligence report and parallel to this SHA (Shareholder’s Agreement) Signing is completed.
• Call for Investment – On successful signing of SHA and receipt of DD report, the call for money is issued to the committed investors. Committed investors are given 15 days time to transfer their investment amount.
• Share Certificate Issuance – Subsequent to the round being closed, share certificates are issued to investors who had remitted their investment amount.

For investors who have subscribed to We Founder Circle membership, they are informed about the investment opportunity over the email and are also communicated via whatsapp groups.

Online Pitch Sessions are organized to showcase the investment opportunities to potential investors.

The Pitch Sessions acts as an event where investors may hear the pitch by the founders who have already signed term sheets with WFC and accordingly make their investment decisions.

WFC also facilitates the follow on meetings/details required to help investors make their investment decisions.

Founders who have signed the term sheet get to present the pitch of their startup for the first time to potential investors on the pitch day.

We conduct only Online Pitch day as it helps all of our investors from any part of the world to attend and be part of the pitch day.

On the basis of the pitch Investors can take their decision to invest.

We facilitate any follow up on meetings as well as provide any details which are required by investors to make their investment decisions.

No. Only those companies which are able to gather commitments equal or near to their total fund raise amount, get funded.

If after all the pitch sessions, the commitments received for a particular startup is fairly low compared to their requirements, then such startups are dropped and are not funded.

If a deal gets more commitment than requirement, pari passu comes into effect.

If a deal remains marginally under subscribed, we go ahead and complete the investment.

If a deal remains significantly under-subscribed, the deal is dropped and no further efforts are made

Investment Commitment is the ballpark quantum of money that an investor is willing to invest in a particular startup. The Actual Investment amount that an investor may actually subscribe to can differ from the commitment amount and is communicated by WFC in the Call for money Mail. The deviation is due to the change in investor’s perception over time.

The Minimum Investment Commitment amount is INR 1,00,000. However, it varies from deal to deal and is mentioned in every investment interest mail that is shared for the respective investment opportunity.

Share Certificates are issued by the startups against the amount received by them and the same are couriered to the investor by WFC.

No, the investor has to stay invested until an exit opportunity arrives.

An Individual Investor can max have 3 Investing Entities for investing the committed amount.

The 3 investing entities can be immediate family members or privately owned companies and in case of multiple entities being used by an investor, the PoA against each entity will have to be shared with WFC.

The shares are issued against the investing entity of the individual investor.

WFC Partners do all the financial and legal due-diligence for the startups before taking in any money from the investor. A Due Diligence report is issued prior to the signing of the Shareholder Agreement.

We also rely on the social proofs and background of the startup and team members. Besides this, all investments on the platform have the legal paperwork to protect your investment.

Yes, WFC’s members are encouraged to refer and bring interesting investment opportunities to the network.

Yes, WFC’s members are encouraged to refer potential investors to its team to continue strengthening the power of WFC’s Network.

WFC does not sign NDAs. WFC shares all plans received by it with all its members. WFC team members, in turn, sign an NDA with WFC.