New Delhi: There’s a quiet revolution sweeping over Mithila, a land known as much for its Madhubani art as for its importance in history and myth. It’s a startup movement like the region, spanning parts of Bihar and Jharkhand, has never seen before — and at its heart is a network of angel investors.
Mithila Angel Network (MAN) is a growing network of 700 people, according to its founder, 55-year-old Arvind Jha. The very first economic intervention of its kind in Mithila, MAN’s stated aim is to boost the region’s economy by helping startups and generating employment opportunities.
“There are a lot of startups working in the Mithila region. They were hungry for a support system and our arrival triggered a buzz in them,” Gurgaon-based Jha, who started the network in 2021, told ThePrint.
“Over $100 billion has been invested in Indian startups since 2008 but Mithila has received no funding and support,” he said. “This prompted a group of professional Maithili people from the diaspora to come together and create Mithila Angel Network to address this gap and build an ecosystem for investments in Mithila startups.”
One such company is RodBez, a Mithila-based taxi aggregator that raised Rs 46 lakh in capital in its last seed funding round on 25 March.
“Mithila Angel Network has been a sanjeevni (lifeline) for our startup. Without this, it would have been difficult to grow fast in such a short time because no investor wants to come to Bihar. If it performs well in the coming times, then the confidence of the investors will increase,” said Dilkhush Kumar, founder of RodBez.
RodBez isn’t the only startup the network is helping — its 10 companies include a grocery startup called Darbhanga Haat, an emergency medical transport provider named Hanuman Ambulance Service, an English learning platform called English Yaari, and a medical care platform, BigOHealth.
Also Read: Budget 2023: India Inc wishlist includes capex focus, support for women in business & tax cuts
Assistance, mentorship
Mithila is one of the poorest regions in the country, with a per capita income of less than Rs 40,000, and the most sought-after jobs are government ones, said Jha.
It’s this that MAN seeks to change. The network’s website calls it the “first bootstrapped incubator-cum-angel investment group dedicated to the Mithila region”.
According to Jha, most of the people associated with MAN have information technology and finance backgrounds. For now, the investors are largely Maithili people living abroad — outsiders are still reluctant to invest in Mithila, he said.
Companies are given assistance only through funding but also mentorship and networking. There are eight mentors, all of them holding senior positions in various companies around the world, said Jha.
Among these mentors are Sharad Kumar Jha, a businessman and councillor in Buckinghamshire, UK, and Ajay Jha, an entrepreneur living in Colorado, USA.
The network’s founders periodically hold a Founders Talk — a session to help startups network with business experts.
But, much like any other business, not every idea gets investment. What’s required is a sound business strategy and a clear go-to-market plan.
“Whoever invests money should see that it will bring some return. There should be a potential for return. We found some startups that were fitting in with the goal of Mithila Angel Network,” said Arvind Jha, adding that the network aims to raise capital for five startups this fiscal.
Funding for Rodbez
In order to raise money for Rodbez, a one-way cab aggregator that has 2,000 taxis in its network, MAN organised a fundraising programme that lasted two months.
A total of 30 investors invested in the company, according to Jha. Twenty-nine were originally from Mithila and one from Andhra Pradesh, but they were based in different parts of the world, including the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada.
The programme ended in March, leaving the company with Rs 46 lakh in seed money.
Kumar, its founder, is no greenhorn in the startup ecosystem, and RodBez is his second venture in seven years.
The money, he said, will be used for expanding to more cities — Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, Motihari, and Saharsa — strengthening the aggregator’s database, working on advertising and human resources, and optimising its app.
“If successful people start supporting young startups in Bihar, the youth of Bihar have enough intellectual ability, hard work, and vision to build big businesses that will generate employment and economic growth,” he said.
This startup push in Mithila comes at a time when Bihar is trying to reinvent its image as a ‘dry’ state for industry and businesses. Last year, the Nitish Kumar government introduced a new startup policy to help create an independent and transparent ecosystem in the state.
How Mithila Angel Network started
Before he launched MAN in 2021, Jha, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, was a senior vice-president (products) of US-based Newgen Software, and had also held senior positions in various other software companies.
According to him, the seeds of the network were sown in 2019, when he travelled home to Rahika, a village in Madhubani district. He was returning home after 25 years, he said, and was well aware of Mithila’s cultural importance. But what struck him was the potential of the area.
“Due to the earthquake (2014 Nepal earthquake), a part of my ancestral house had collapsed. I felt that the memories of my home had gone with it,” he told ThePrint. “But when I had stayed there a few days, I realised that there was no economic activity there.”
After some research, he found out that the region was still largely dependent on its cultural heritage — such as Madhubani art — for its income.
“But I found that people aged between 25 and 40 wanted to do something to enrich this area financially,” Jha recalled, adding, “I created a blueprint for economic intervention.”
Then COVID-19 hit, and his plans had to be shelved for the time being.
He finally announced his network at the Madhubani Literature Festival held in Darbhanga in December 2021. It was also at the festival that he met RodBez founder Kumar.
MAN began with eight founders and through them, gradually grew to 150 people.
“Initially, we contacted people we knew and asked them to join us, made a panel of investors and mentors, and then started working with startups,” Jha said.
Discussions were held over a Whatsapp group. At the same time, there were plans for expansion — LinkedIn, Facebook, email, and social media campaigns were used to bring more people into the network.
The network has also supported Madhubani art — including an exhibition in Delhi in May last year — and organised the Mithila Business Summit in January 2022, as well as a panel discussion on ‘Mithila Economy — Status and Possibilities’ at this year’s Vidyapati festival in Rahika.
MAN’s logo shows people engaged in different tasks — a woman using a computer, a man painting, and a third person reading. At the centre is a group of people holding hands to make a human chain.
To Jha, it denotes community effort. “The MAN logo shows the community contributing to the fund (kalash) by joining each other’s hands. The banner shows its focus areas — IT/ITEs, education, health, agritech, e-commerce and the crafts,” he said.
(This is an updated version of the story.)
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: Why India’s Unicorn population hit a peak & dropped off in 2022