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On the eve of International Women’s Day, Colossa Ventures, a SEBI registered venture capital management company, has announced the first close of its maiden fund - Colossa WomenFirst Fund at ₹100 crore.
The fund with a target corpus of ₹500 Crore will primarily focus on investing at the Pre-Series A stage and beyond.
Based on extensive research Colossa sees immense opportunity in Healthcare and HealthTech, FinTech, Climate & Clean-Tech, Deep Tech and the Consumer sectors.
Colossa Ventures has been founded by Ashu Suyash. (Former MD & CEO of CRISIL, Former India Country Head - Fidelity International, ex-Citibanker) and Vandana Rajadhyaksha (Ex-Partner, ICICI Ventures and Aditya Birla Private Equity).
The fund’s unique strategy that leverages gender-diversity to generate alpha, has attracted well-known institutions such as SIDBI and renowned family offices like Dr. Ranjan Pai’s Family Office and the Shriram Ownership Trust, among others to invest in the first close.
Colossa WomenFirst fund, a sector agnostic venture growth 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.
“Our first close marks an important milestone for Colossa WomenFirst Fund,” said Ashu Suyash, Founder & CEO of Colossa. “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.”
Vandana Rajadhyaksha, Co-Founder of Colossa, said, “ 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.”
Ranjan Pai, Chairman, Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) said, “Colossa’s vision resonates with our commitment to fostering long-term growth by powering underrepresented entrepreneurs in India. 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.”
Also read: Why women entrepreneurs are seeking mentors
S.P. Singh, Chief General Manager Incharge Venture Finance & Investment Vertical SIDBI said, “With Women’s contribution to GDP expected to register strong growth in the coming years our organisation is looking to back exceptional women founders who can contribute to building a sustainable and inclusive future. We believe that the Colossa team is well placed to do so and we are proud to invest in the Colossa WomenFirst fund.”
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