Gender-centric investment platform, Achieving Women Equity (AWE) Funds, said on Thursday it has launched a Rs 350 crore fund to back Indian startups.
The new fund will invest in 15-17 startups over the next five years in sectors across healthcare, climate, fintech, agri and sustainability. The fund has already backed 4 startups, 2 in healthcare and 2 investments in fintech, Seema Chaturvedi, founding partner of AWE Funds said in an interaction with VCCircle.
Investments from the fund will range from Rs 3.5 crore to Rs 20 with follow-on backing, Chaturvedi noted. AWE invests primarily at the early stage of startup mainly entering at Pre-Series A or Series A funding round.
AWE has invested in agritech company Freshokartz Agri, IT solutions provider Blackburn Technologies, healthtech startup Remedico, Velmeni.ai and in the fintech space it has backed Agam International to date.
A SEBI-registered entity, AWE has also secured commitments worth Rs 130 crore from high networth individuals (HNIs) and limited partners (LPs). The list of investors includes AZB & Partners’ Zia Mody, Waterfield Advisors’ Soumya Rajan, former Gates Foundation executive Padma Chandrasekaran and former Microsoft executive Divya Sampath.
“Only 2% of overall venture investment goes towards women businesses. We are trying to change the narrative at the top by emphasizing on the need for capital allocation with an intent of promoting gender equity,” Chaturvedi noted.