iAngels, an Angel Network backed by India Accelerator (IA), has unveiled its Chennai Chapter to foster the growth of the startup community in south India. It plans to make an investment of ₹100 crore across 50 companies in a year.

The launch is aimed at nurturing the ecosystem by enabling comprehensive development through collaborations with supporting entities, institutes and corporates, said a release.

With Chennai at the forefront, boasting a vibrant community of successful B2B SaaS companies, women-led ventures (TanSeed), DeepTech, ClimateTech, Sustainability, and FinTech startups, the environment provides impetus to IA’s iAngels to expand into Chennai, and augment the Tamil Nadu government’s effort in fostering the startup ecosystem in the region by facilitating a robust infrastructure, guidance, network and resources.

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The angel network is planning to collaborate with Startup TN, IIT-M, KSUM, TiE Chennai and NSCREL to strengthen and build the local startup ecosystem in Chennai and supplement it with global outreach.

Through iAngels, IA has established 7 start-up chapters across geographies including Delhi/NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Ahmedabad US, UK and UAE, and is expanding domestically and internationally with an already functional centre in Dubai. IA has created an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country, have got over 150 start-ups under its portfolio, and have over 1,400 mentors in its network, the release said.