Investor Profile: Ankur Warikoo — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Ankur Warikoo is best known as the internet entrepreneur who built NearBuy and then built one of India’s largest personal brands around entrepreneurship, money and careers. But behind the 17.7-million-strong community and six bestselling books sits a serious, long-standing angel-investing practice focused on startup funding: Warikoo describes himself as an active angel investor in 30+ companies who loves spending time with first-time entrepreneurs and mentoring them.

Warikoo was co-founder and CEO of NearBuy.com (earlier Groupon India) from 2015 to 2019, building it into one of India’s leading hyperlocal discovery platforms. He is now building WebVeda (an education platform), the India Genius Challenge (a national quiz competition and scholarship programme) and Monzy (a credit-card discovery platform), alongside his content and authorship — all six of his books, including DO EPIC SHIT, have been #1 bestsellers in India.

Investment thesis & focus

Warikoo’s sweet spot is edtech, fintech and digital platforms — sectors he has operated in himself. His approach is mentoring-first: he says his investments are not just about ROI but about creating ecosystems that benefit founders, consumers and the market, backing founders with business-strategy guidance as much as capital. He deliberately leans toward first-time founders, drawn from his own journey of building companies from scratch. Unlike a fund, he has no mandate to deploy — every bet is personal conviction.

Cheque size & stage

Individual cheque sizes are not publicly disclosed, and most of his deals are at the seed and angel stages, with the occasional later-stage participation (such as INDMoney’s Series D). What is on record is his own portfolio disclosure from January 2025, reported by The Economic Times and Times Now: ₹3.49 crore in startup equity and ₹1.62 crore in startup debt, within a total personal portfolio of roughly ₹20 crore. He reinvests the profits of his businesses through a holding company co-owned with his wife.

Notable portfolio

Publicly recorded investments include NowPurchase (B2B retail SaaS), Kredmint (supply-chain finance), Vested Finance (US investing for Indians), Josh Talks (career-content platform), INDMoney (wealth management), Wint Wealth (retail bonds), Reach, BetaOut (e-commerce personalisation), LimeTray and Overcart — alongside wealth42, Leverage Edu, inFeedo, Daolens, Classplus and Avalon Meta. The portfolio reflects a clear pattern: fintech and edtech startups with strong consumer-distribution angles.

Partners & team

Warikoo invests as an individual, not through a fund or syndicate. His business is structured through a holding company with three units — Brand Warikoo (content), WebVeda (education) and Investing (reinvestment of profits into startups, PMS, mutual funds and real estate). He has also co-invested alongside funds such as 100Unicorns and Better Capital, and angels including Kunal Bahl.

How to apply for funding

Warikoo runs no public application window or pitch portal — he invests personally and selectively. For founders, the realistic routes are warm introductions through shared investors or founders in his network, or reaching him via the contact channels on ankurwarikoo.com and his social profiles. Note that his site’s published contact form is geared toward speaking engagements; there is no stated channel for cold pitches, so a referral from someone he trusts is by far the best door.