London-based Arāya Ventures has announced the first close of the Arāya Super Angel Fund with $10.9 million. The fund’s investors include Bridgerton actress Charithra Chandran, former Credit Suisse CEO Phil Cutts, and former Browns CEO Holli Rogers.
An exited entrepreneur, founder and managing partner Rupa Popat has closed Arāya Ventures’ first fund with a plan to invest $25 million via a unique community-powered model. She intends the fund to be the ‘most value-add investor’ on the cap table.
Amidst the economic downturn, several VC funds such as Swiss-based redalpine and Danish VC Nine Realms raised investments.
Investment strategy
Arāya Super Angel fund is a community-powered fund that will invest in up to 60 pre-seed and seed-stage founders across the next four years in health tech, fintech, climate, commerce, and work. The fund will invest pre-seed and seed cheques of $200k to $550k. It will also give founders access to significant value-add from Rupa, the Arāya Ventures team, the Super Angel Fund investors, and Arāya’s extensive angel and proprietary scout network.
The fund benefits from a flexible hybrid structure that accommodates both EIS and non-EIS investments. It will invest capital over a four-year deployment, with 10 to 15 investments per year to increase diversification and maximise performance, reserving 25% for repeat founders who have already built a business previously.
Over 15% of the fund is made up of family offices, which invest directly at Series A and B; at least 65% are from ethnic minority backgrounds; 60% are current or exited founders and 16% are from outside the UK across the US, Middle East, and India.
Community of investors
The fund is powered by a community of over 80 fund investors, including current and exited entrepreneurs such as Media Zoo founder Rachel Pendered, and Cambridge Spark founder & Chairman Dr Raoul-Gabriel Urma, angel and VC investors such as Niraj Pabari of Switzerland-based Giano Capital and former COO and co-founder of Precede Capital Partners Daljit Sandhu, operators, financial professionals from Royal Bank of Canada, Plurimi and Blackrock, C-suite leaders and family offices from a variety of industries.
Benefits of this fund
Some of the investors will also be on hand to support the founders. They will be benefited with their network and expertise across Data & AI, Go-to-market strategy, Fundraising, Growth, US expansion, and more.
Furthermore, they will also benefit from Arāya Ventures Academy for Angels (AVA Angels) which will have 250 angel investor graduates by the end of 2024 and over 1,000 by the end of 2025. This is also part of the fund’s proprietary scout network and will offer the angel investors co-investment opportunities into deals backed by the fund.
Rupa Popat said: “This is Arāya Ventures’ first fund and I’m incredibly proud of what we’re able to offer both investors and founders. As a former founder turned investor, I’ve been on both sides of the table and I know that for most early-stage founders, whilst capital is important, it’s also about the additional value and support that investors can provide. Our approach is incredibly bespoke and personalised and with this unique structure, we’re optimising not only for performance but plugging a gap to offer real support to early-stage founders and giving them value beyond the cheque.”
