IMPACTASSETS 50™
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
ImpactAssets 50
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
Achieving Women Entrepreneurs
Early Growth Trust
Climate Change
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Financial and Economic InclusionFirm Overview
Achieving Women Entrepreneurs Early Growth Fund (AWE Funds) is the first of its kind unique fund platform to invest in innovative enterprises that promote gender equity. This includes investing in women owned, led, or influenced businesses (gender equitable impact in the supply chain or providing disproportionate women specific market making by women) to drive gender equity. AWE Funds is the first scheme of Achieving Women Entrepreneurs Early Growth Trust and is set-up under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 and registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India (‘SEBI’) as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund (‘AIF’) (Registration received on August 6, 2019). AWE Capital Advisors LLP is the Investment Management for the Fund set up as a limited liability partnership under the provisions of the Indian Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. We have raised $23.5 million in commitments out of the total target of $50 M + $15 M Green-shoe.
Years of Operation: Less than 3 years
% of Capital from Top 3 Investors: 50% – 99%
AWE Funds is an early growth equity fund platform with the focused Gender Smart investment strategy of investing in innovative enterprises that promote gender equity by investing in women owned, led, and influenced businesses in India.
AWE Funds is an early growth equity fund platform with the focused Gender Smart investment strategy of investing in innovative enterprises that promote gender equity by investing in women owned, led, and influenced businesses in India. We primarily focus on 5 Sectors which have the potential to engage a higher proportion of women. These include food and agri, health, education, sustainability (including cleantech & water) and fintech. The fund will invest in 15 to 17 companies during the commitment period. The average ticket size ranges from USD 0.5 million to USD 3 million. The Fund shall acquire minority stake in the Company ranging typically from 15% to 25% and make investments via equity and equity linked instruments. The Fund invests in Pre-Series A to Series A round – primarily in post revenue Companies, with at least a path to profitability.
- Passionate believers in demonstrated positive impact of HER POWER & Gender Equity Mainstreaming.
- Team with deep domain knowledge, operational, fund management, scale up and transactional experience. Team (with IC): 100+ years of experience, invested ~ USD 338 million with best case returns of 163%.
- AWE Funds seeks to create impact which is manifested at 3 levels: (i) Entity Level (track data) (ii) Macro level 10X GDP Contribution Multiplier and Demonstration Effect: 2X Funding Impact
- Team’s experience of working with DFI’s has deeply informed AWE Funds’ focus on instituting IFC standards at its portfolio companies and commitment to best in class ESG norms.
- Global network of potential strategic partners, venture & PE funds & investment bankers for additional capital & exit options.
- Deep experience in getting exits.
- Developed a full suite of value-added services that we will offer to our portfolio companies 8.Team have professional networks for sourcing proprietary deal flow.
Investment Example
Warehoused deal: Agritech company which provides integrated full-stack one-stop solution to small & marginal farmers in India for all Inputs, crop advisory, output linkages, crop financing and insurance needs. The Company has farmer base of 125,000 marginal farmers and growing (70% women). Targeting reaching 1 Million farmers in 2 years. (1) Meets our Gender Lens Investment Criteria - Owned, led and influenced (more than 70% of workers on farms are women). (2) Operates in the ‘Upstream’ segment of supply chain which has natural barriers to entry (difficult for outsiders), can drive greater efficiency in supply chain given an organized supply base and fragmented customer base. (3) Experienced, Committed and Competent Management Team (4) Significant upsell opportunities as more difficult to get data is aggregated (5) Scope for significant scalability with sizable immediate addressable market USD 4.4 billion (Total mkt $350 B) (6) Potential for return in next 4-5 years: ~ 5X MOIC
Leadership and Team
 |
Seema Chaturvedi – Founder More Info
Seema Chaturvedi is firm’s top investment professional and has over 20 years of capital markets and financial management experience. Previously, she was founders Accelerator Group, LLC, a buy side investment and strategic advisory services firm. Prior to this, she has worked with Amherst Partners, LLC, Shearson Lehman and JM Financial Services (Morgan Stanley’s India partner). She invested $63 million in 16 investments with a best case return of 163% IRR (excluding other professional activities). She founded a marquee women’s entrepreneurship program in India which received 6 rounds of funding from US Department of State and mentored 575 women from 106 Tier 2 and 3 cities in 20 states in India. As a prolific thought leader, has spoken at many national and international forums, is guest lecturer at Johns Hopkins’ Paul H. Nitze SAIS on Gender Lens Investing & Women Economic Empowerment, US State Department International Speakers Program. |
 |
Prachi Jain – Director More Info
Prachi has 12+ years of experience in private equity industry in India and has thorough knowledge and experience of the entire life cycle of the industry. She is a passionate believer in gender lens investing. Prior to joining AWE Funds, Prachi was a core team member of SEAF India Agribusiness Fund I and Fund II and played a pivotal role in fund structuring and setting up these funds. She has also worked with New Leaf - an investment banking firm, Yes Bank and Ambit RSM (merged with PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC)). She values the contribution a mentor can make and has participated as an Evaluation Committee member of a Virtual Incubation Platform of Intellecap for the Start-up Companies. |
 |
Divya Sampath – Partner More Info
Divya has 25+ years senior management, Technology, Consulting, BU Leadership. She is a prolific Angel Investor. Her prior experiences include Asia Pacific & Japan Head of Innovation Consulting at ServiceNow, Asia-Pacific & Japan Adoption Practice /BU Leader at Microsoft, Practice Leader at Cognizant Europe & Global, and CEO’s Strategic Initiatives team lead, Sify. She has significant experience in building, leading, and scaling up businesses. She is a digital transformation, cloud, AI, and analytics specialist. Divya is deeply experienced in behavioral science, change management, design thinking, and program management. As a Charter Member of TiE - one of the largest global entrepreneurship ecosystems - she actively mentors entrepreneurs and younger startups. |
Financial Performance
Impact Performance
|
Percentage of Total Assets Under
Management that are Impact Investments: |
75% – 99%
|
AWE Funds’ ESG policies are based on IFC’s ESG policy template. We have a robust, quantitative, well-understood system to evaluate the portfolio companies from the stage of screening (including understanding the founder's intentionality and commitment to integrate ESG policies in the operations of the Company) to the execution of Definitive Agreements whereby covenants pertaining to adoption of ESG and GEM policies are included. Through our ESG and GEM metrics, we assess the portfolio company’s developmental and social impact. We conduct ESG diligence and if due diligence identifies deficiencies, the post - closing action plan will include proposals to achieve compliance within a reasonable period. As an example, for the first time, we have included a covenant whereby the Company have undertaken that until the AWE is invested, they shall increase the number of women engaged as employees, farmers, suppliers by 10x times the current number.
i. We have currently employed an edited version of the Bloomberg Gender Equity Survey instrument to capture relevant quantitative and qualitative assessment before and during the investment holding period. We are in process of transitioning to a more relevant Gender Equity Scorecard more suitable for privately held companies given that Bloomberg is more relevant for developed markets and publicly traded companies. ii. Our End of investment Impact for SDG#5 is measured against the 3 levels of AWE Funds Impact Manifestation. iii. We have adopted AWE Funds Gender Focus Grid to guide as gating criteria for our portfolio investments. iv. Our ESG Rating Scale based assessment of the ESG & related development impact. v. We measure the impact of our investments against the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG#5 is a major consideration. We typically also see at least 3- 8 additional SDG’s being met.
Impact Tracking and Monitoring
Learn More
C-1301, Rizvi Oak, Sadguru Wamanrao Pai Road, Malad (East)
Mumbai, Maharashtra 400097, India
Apply for the IA 50 2022
The application period to become an ImpactAssets 50 2022 Fund Manager will open in September 2021!
To stay informed on the application process, sign up here.