Colossa Ventures, an independent venture capital management company, announced on Thursday that it raised Rs 100 crore at the first first close its Colossa WomenFirst Fund.
First close refers to the initial round of investors making capital commitments in a private equity fund and becoming limited partners by entering into a deed of adherence.
"Colossa WomenFirst Fund aims to unlock the vast potential of the Indian female economy," the venture capital firm said.
Those invested in the first close of this sector-agnostic venture growth fund include SIDBI, Dr. Ranjan Pai’s Family Office and Shriram Ownership Trust, among others.
According to Colossa Ventures, the fund "seeks to revolutionise the startup landscape by focusing exclusively on high quality 'WomenFirst' businesses—either women-founded or co-founded, or where women are main beneficiaries."
The fund, with a target corpus of Rs 500 crore, will primarily focus on investing at the Pre-Series A stage and beyond.
"Our first close marks an important milestone for Colossa WomenFirst Fund," founder and CEO of Colossa Ventures, Ashu Suyash, said, adding, “Colossa’s mission is to unlock the great potential of India’s trillion-dollar women economy that is not just under-penetrated, but underinvested in, and underestimated. It seeks to do so by identifying, backing, and fast-tracking high-potential women entrepreneurs building disruptive businesses through powering them with Colossa’s proprietary 3C framework: Capital, Capability, and Confidence.”
Women are at an inflection point in the Indian economy and the next decade is going to be owned by women entrepreneurs, noted co-founder of Colossa Ventures, Vandana Rajadhyaksha.
As many as 33 unicorns and soonicorns in the country have female founders in 2023. The inflection point for women entrepreneurs is aided by a conducive socio-cultural landscape, access to SETM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, favourable policy-making, technology, and a hybrid work environment.
"As women increasingly take the lead in building substantial businesses, we see our participation in Colossa WomenFirst Fund as strategic deployment of 'confidence capital' to fuel the growth of women entrepreneurs," Ranjan Pai, chairman of Manipal Education and Medical Group, said.
