India Has A Handful of Women Venture Capitalists. Here's the List From cricket to big corporate jobs to entrepreneurship, Indian women have time and again proved their great leadership skills
By Komal Nathani •
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In today's booming start-up world, the term Venture Capitalist (VC) has become a new buzzword. Every start-up requires backing from reliable investors, who will pump adequate funds into their businesses at the nascent stage.
The start-up ecosystem has gained a huge momentum with support and encouragement from the government of India, prompting more VCs to come and invest.
But, the number of women investors in India is too less to be happy. This despite, the fact that women are trying to gain a toehold in the funding and investment field that is mostly dominated by men.
From cricket to big corporate jobs to entrepreneurship, Indian women have time and again proved themselves as forerunners with their great leadership skills.
Entrepreneur India lists successful Indian women-led investment groups, which are fueling growth in the start-up ecosystem by betting high on early-stage companies.
Kae Capital – Nita Mirchandani
After working for years at big companies in the banking industry, Nita Mirchandani embarked on her entrepreneurial journey in 1994. Identifying a major scope in supporting early starters, Mirchandani joined Kae Capital as its Director. It is a venture capital firm specialized in seed round, pre-series A, and early-stage investments. The company majorly invests in businesses that are coming up with innovative solutions for pain points constraining the growth of banking industry.
Mirchandani's educational background in Economics helped her grow business with ease and expertise.
Seedfund Advisors - Bharati Jacob
An early-stage investment is more to do with identifying a successful entrepreneurial streak in an individual than the ideation of business. Bharti Jacob, the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Seedfund Advisors, a VC funding company, is an expert in that.
Jacob has years of experience in investment, marketing and financial services in India Inc. Seeedfund Advisors backs those early-stage companies across sectors, which are not just working on profit-generating ideas but are adding value to the market in some way or the other. Besides financial help, the venture capitalist firm also provides guidance to early starters and helps them in networking.
SAHA Fund - Ankita Vasisth and Usha Amin
With the idea of providing support to women entrepreneurs, Ankita Vasisth teamed up with Usha Amin to start a one-of-a-kind VC Venture, SAHA Fund.
It is for the women and run by the women. It helps those aspiring businesswomen who have strong, out-of-the box ideas for today and tomorrow.
SAHA Fund promotes women from all industrial sectors in every possible way. The company invests in e-commerce, social media, mobile, cloud computing, data analytics, education, healthcare, food-tech and tech platforms. Aligning itself with initiatives of digital revolution in India, SAHA Fund is investing in companies that are going digital.
Kalaari Capital Advisors - Vani Kola
The Founder and Director of Kalaari Capital, Vani Kola, is a prominent name in the list of India's women-led investors. Born and educated in Hyderabad, Vani spent a long time working as an entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley till 2006. Back in India, Kola founded Kalaari Capital Advisors to support budding entrepreneurs in building their companies. Vani usually looks for technology-based companies that are actively contributing to India's domestic growth.
Sol Primero - Shweta Singh & Presha Paragash
The Wharton MBA graduates, Shweta Singh and Presha Paragash, left their shinning corporate careers to embark on a entrepreneurial journey in India. Singh and Paragash founded Sol Primero, an early-stage investment firm, to partner with entrepreneurs who are looking for opportunities to give wings to their innovative ideas.
The company is a staunch believer of the philosophy that backing big ideas always pays off, but backing the right team, which can implement the idea, is the winning strategy.
