Indian VC firm LetsVenture launches Women Angel Network

Indian VC firm LetsVenture has announced the launch of its Women Angel Network to promote the representation of women investors in the venture capital world.

Sunitha Ramaswamy, president of Early Stage, a VC unit of LetsVenture / Photo credit: LetsVenture

Through the platform, women angel investors will get to invest in early- and growth-stage startups. LetsVenture aims to bring at least 100 such investors onboard in 2021 and launch at least five lead syndicates run by women.

The network will also provide women investors with technical know-how by letting them participate as an observer in LetsVenture deals, which makes about 10 to 15 investments a month.

“Having spoken to several women investors as well as those that are suited to fall into this bucket, we found that the biggest impediments were the lack of access to networks where knowledge and startup deal flow is shared,” said Sunitha Ramaswamy, president of Early Stage, a VC unit of LetsVenture.

The cohort-based learning program will last for about three months, where women will be exposed to an investing network and go through a curated module. These investors will also gain access to LetsVenture’s platform and make investments in lower ticket sizes for a certain number of deals.

LetsVenture will partner with a US-based firm that runs a women-centric learning platform in the next few weeks. The program will also provide a platform for women angel investors to actively mentor startups and offer guidance related to their areas of expertise to founders.

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LetsVenture aims to improve gender parity in the investor community and increase the number of women in the pipeline that are sitting on the boards in listed and unlisted companies based out of India.