ah! Ventures announces launch of angel fund with Rs 100 cr corpus

Investment platform ah! Ventures has announced the launch of its maiden angel fund to empower startups with Glocal ambitions.

The Sebi-registered Category I AIF-VCF-Angel Fund, with a target corpus of Rs 100 crore (about $14 million) and a greenshoe option of up to Rs 50 crore ($6 million), will focus on early-stage, Pre-Series A startups across India.

While the first close is expected within the next 60 days, the team’s target is to be fully invested by the third year with potential winners.

The new fund will be sector-agnostic and aims to invest an average of Rs 3-5 crore each in 30-35 Pre-Series A startups.

“Over the past few years, homegrown startups with a local focus and global approach have been the game-changers in the Indian economy. But this is just a scratch on the surface. We are yet to witness the full potential of thousands of budding startups, especially if they get the requisite support and level-playing field during the early stages. Our Angel Fund aims to do just that – substantially propel those next big ideas and help them take the leap,” said Amit Kumar, Partner, ah! Ventures Fund.

ah! Ventures has invested in several early-stage enterprises across more than 25 sectors in the past, and has a total investment portfolio of over Rs 285 crore ($37 million), 14 exits, and 28 follow-on rounds. The platform has already made 37 investments so far this year, and is already working with leading companies such as Testbook, Inc42, NewsBytes, Bolo Live, Ketto, Expertrons and Text Mercato, among others.

“The pandemic, combined with rapid scale digital transformation, has redefined the market. The emerging sectors, riding the technology wave, offer a lot of promise for growth and expansion. While we are sector-agnostic, our core focus will rest in healthcare, fintech, education, B2B SaaS, enterprise tech, new-age tech and D2C, among others,” said Harshad Lahoti, Partner, ah! Ventures Fund.

With over 70,000 entrepreneurs and over 6,000 seed/angel investors and venture capitalists from India and abroad, the ah! Ventures platform has catalysed the growth of promising businesses and investors alike.

“There is no greater satisfaction than [seeing] a startup living up to its promise and spreading value far across. So, we have taken a value-focused and futuristic approach for this fund as well,” added Abhijeet Kumar, Partner, ah! Ventures Fund.