Women entrepreneur-focused venture capital firm Colossa Ventures, which was floated by former executives of Crisil and Aditya Birla Private Equity, Thursday said it has made the first close of its maiden fund.
Colossa Ventures raised Rs 100 crore to hit the fundraising milestone for the Colossa WomenFirst Fund. The VC firm is looking to raise as much as Rs 500 crore for the investment vehicle.
VCCircle had exclusively reported about the launch of Colossa Ventures in February last year.
The firm raised funds from institutions such as SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India), Ranjan Pai’s Family Office and the Shriram Ownership Trust, among others.
Colossa WomenFirst fund, a sector-agnostic venture growth fund, will primarily focus on investing at the Pre-Series A stage and beyond. It will focus on investing in segments like healthcare and healthtech, fintech, climate and cleantech, deeptech and consumer.
"Women are at an inflection point of the Indian economy and the next decade is going to be owned by women entrepreneurs. We see this as an opportunity to build a unique portfolio catalysing strong financial performance,” said Vandana Rajadhyaksha, co-founder of Colossa.
Colossa Ventures was founded by Rajadhyaksha and Ashu Suyash. It got SEBI AIF approval in March last year.
Prior to this, Rajadhyaksha was the investment director at Aditya Birla Private Equity. She has also worked as the director of investments at ICICI Ventures. In the past, she was associated with KPMG and Tata Steel.
Suyash was the managing director and chief executive officer of credit rating agency Crisil. She is currently an independent director in companies like Hindustan Unilever and Kotak Mahindra Bank. She has previously worked at Citi group and L&T Investment Management.
