Offline, a private members’ community for tech founders and CEOs for India, has raised $2 million from a clutch of angel investors including Groww’s Lalit Keshre, Razorpay’s Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, Xiaomi’s Hong Feng and Alvin Tse, Ultrahuman cofounders Mohit Kumar and Vatsal Singhal, in addition to cofounders of startups such as Shiprocket, Polygon, Park+, Fashinza, GoKwik, Mosaic Wellness and others.
The community platform, launched by former AngelList India CEO Utsav Somani, will develop a close-knit community of startup founders with a defined growth trajectory.
“They need to meet either of these criteria to even apply – $5 million raised or $5 million in revenue or $10 million in a previous exit,” according to a statement.
Microfunds such as Better Capital, DeVC, Huddle, Riverwalk Ventures, and India Silicon Valley have also backed Offline.
“We are bringing in the best executive coaches and trained facilitators in the country and even globally to build out a playbook that will enable us to host these monthly meetings with 6-8 founders that we will have in our member network. We will curate these very selectively,” Somani said, adding that the members will be selected through a two-tier system.
“(In the first phase) the Offline team – of people that have worked at Soho House and Quorum – will be involved…following which five to six people who are respected in the startup ecosystem for building large companies will shortlist members,” Somani said.
According to Somani, Offline plans to expand its community to around a hundred members across Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru and soon will expand to Singapore and Dubai.
The launch of Offline comes with the beginning of paid communities and networks for business entrepreneurs and individuals working in the startup environment. Ragini Das and Anand Sinha, two former Zomato executives, joined forces in 2020 to launch Leap.Club, a social platform for women professionals that offers a membership model through which its users can access a curated network of peers, executive coaching, upskilling programs, and mental wellness support.
Leap.Club has reportedly raised $2.6 million so far from investors such as Titan Capital, Whiteboard Venture Partners, Enzia, Artha India Ventures, and AngelList, according to data from Tracxn.
