Pervasive gender biases show up in many critical areas, including allocation of investment capital — less than 2% of venture equity goes to women-led businesses, making them a grossly underinvested category of businesses. Identifying this gap in the investment sector, there are some individuals who are determined to make a difference. Seema Chaturvedi is one such person. Her mission is clear: to achieve gender equity in India by helping 30 million women gain ‘agency’ by 2030. Thus, AWE (Achieving Women Equity) Funds was born.

AWE Funds is a venture capital fund that invests in innovation and deep tech that promotes gender equity and climate action. Seema’s thesis is that by investing in women-centric businesses, not only can investors unlock the investment alpha and realise superior financial returns, but they can also deliver a systemic change that positively impacts most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

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How it began

Setting up AWE Funds was a culmination of Seema’s over 25 years of investing and financial markets experience combined with her activism, which is always rooted in the need to drive equity while creating value for all stakeholders. “The transformative experience was being the founder & chairperson of Project AIRSWEEE — All India Roadshow for Women’s Economic Empowerment through Entrepreneurship — which sensitised me to the seriously potent and yet latent resource India had — its women,” the founder and managing partner of AWE Funds told FE.

Seema further spoke on what was the turning point for her. “I launched AWE Funds because I saw a very significant gap and opportunity in access to venture equity by women-centric firms. The potential to make superior returns, both financial and impact, by leveraging our global networks is what makes this a very differentiated investment thesis.”

How the fund works

AWE Funds invests at the pre-series A/series A stage. They are typically the first institutional investor after the angel round and often create a syndicate with other funds to create a broader support network needed by portfolio firms. They typically invest in post-revenue firms that have an established product market fit and are focused primarily on climate tech, healthtech and agritech. They also have smaller allocations planned for fintech and edtech.

Recently, the platform has invested in three firms, each of which is validating the merits of AWE Funds’ differentiated thesis of investing by cumulatively helping over 200,000 women gain ‘agency’ and by delivering top-quartile financial returns. With this, the financial returns are looking very promising. AWE Funds has invested in four warehoused investments and is looking at three more firms in the next two months.

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Success on the ground

One of their portfolio firms, Freshokartz Agri, is fortunate to have them on board. Chandrakanta Sahu, co-founder and COO of Freshokartz Agri said, “AWE Funds’ support has been crucial to our success as a women-owned and led business. They have helped us de-risk our business and contain downward risk. Their approach to investing in women ownership and supply chain market making has led to the creation of more gender equity in the startup ecosystem.”