Who is Kunal Shah? India's biggest Angel Investor
Angel investing is a type of private equity investing where high net worth individuals invest in start-ups and small-scale businesses that require initial-stage funding. India’s biggest Angel Investor is Kunal Shah.
Born in Mumbai, India, in 1983 into a Gujari family, business was something quite familiar to him since his small days as is the case with many Gujarati families. He helped his father’s business since his childhood days.
However, during his early teens, his father’s pharmaceutical distribution business was not performing well, and this caused severe strain on their family’s financial situation. At the young age of 15, he took up a job as a Data Entry Operator to pay his school fee. This later turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it had accelerated his learning curve by many folds.
Later on, he went on to Graduate from Wilson College in Mumbai with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A) in Philosophy. Even though Kunal initially wanted to select Engineering or Medicine as his major, he couldn’t do so since he was doing a part-time job and didn't have the time to focus on such heavy majors.
In 2003, he dropped out of his MBA after a few semesters due to the nature of the academic system, which rewarded memorizing over practical education. But during his MBA, he got exposed to marketing and consumer behaviour.
India received Internet access in 1995, probably when Kunal was around 12 years of age. However, Kunal was only first introduced to the internet in the 12th grade. However, access to the internet was quite expensive during those days. So Kunal started teaching about the internet part-time in institutes to get access to free internet (in addition to his salary).
Access to the internet was a game changer for Kunal as it broadened his horizons and allowed him to connect with academics from international universities. The internet and its potential so enthralled him that he quit his data entry job, became a full-time teacher at several internet institutes, and surfed on the internet all night.
Kunal’s entrepreneurial journey started at an early age. Getting exposure to the family business as a child must have given him early insights into how businesses operate. During his time at College, he sold pirated C.D.s and Mehendi cones. Then he ran a cybercafé from his home. He also engaged in other business activities. This was all while doing a full-time job.
After completing his degree and his tenure as a Junior Programmer at a BPO called TIS International, he joined Net4Pharma. He then went on to work in other several other start-ups. His own venture in the Tech field was soon to follow when he started Paisaback in 2009 and then Freecharge in 2010 along with his ex-boss Sandeep Tandon.
Freecharge allowed users to top up their phones online while having the chance to win coupons from several restaurants and retail companies. SnapDeal acquired Freecharge in 2015 for a whopping USD 450 Million which at that time was the largest M & A deal to take place in the Indian start-up eco-system.
In 2016, Kunal joined Y-Combinator, one of the most well-known technologies start-up accelerators based in the USA as a part-time partner and held that post for a year. He also served for a few months as the chairman of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in 2017 and as an advisor for Sequoia Capital, one of the most prominent venture capital companies in the USA.
In 2018, Kunal founded a fintech company Cred, a reward-based credit card payment app in Bangalore, the I.T. capital of India.
Kunal Shah has made more than 200 investments making him the largest angel investor in India. Some of those companies include Razorpay, Unacademy, Slice, Mensa, Spinny, and more.