I'm not sure about the situation in India, but I can say that startup investments are risky and angel investors are risk averse. It's always good to see indicators that lower the perceived risk: a strong founding team, traction, revenues, profitability, etc. In Silicon Valley, great traction with customers can often lead to profitability, so traction without current revenue is still considered a good sign. It's possible that traction is not as well correlated with profitability in other locales, and so traction alone would not be a strong enough indicator in those places.