Founder & Managing Partner Rupa Popat announces Arāya Ventures has completed a second close of the Arāya Super Angel Fund at £18.2million and received a milestone £5 million commitment from British Business Investments, a subsidiary of the British Business Bank, co-investing alongside the Arāya Super Angel Fund. The community-powered fund which will invest in up to 60 innovative pre-seed and seed stage primarily UK startups across the next four years that are transforming the way we live and work across Health, FinTech, Commerce and Future of Work.
This fund is announced amongst a promising backdrop for UK start-ups with the UK tech sector boasting 171 unicorns created to date and a market valuation of $1.1 trillion being reported in 2024. Furthermore, the UK has shown a strong lead in AI startups with 1,800 VC-backed AI startups and 20 AI unicorns already. Arāya has already made investments in 9 companies, over half of which are AI startups. Most recent investments include Capably, Research Grid and Cold AI.
Founder and Managing Partner Rupa Popat brings over two decades of experience as an exited entrepreneur and investment banker. She also has a successful five-year track record as an angel investor with exit offers in her portfolio last year from both Google Ventures and Unilever Ventures. She looks to leverage her expertise as an exited founder and the Arāya team’s extensive investor, customer and talent network to add value to Arāya’s portfolio founders from the get-go. One of Arāya’s portfolio founders said, “since investing in October, Arāya has already made valuable introductions to prospective investors and customers and has been advising us on our growth levers and strategy, following our explosive ARR growth last year.”
British Business Investments has made a £5 million commitment through its Regional Angels Programme, which helps reduce regional imbalances in access to early-stage equity finance for smaller businesses across the UK, to be invested alongside the fund. The fund’s investors include fund of funds Saarthi Capital, C-Suite professionals such as former Credit Suisse CEO Phil Cutts and former Browns CEO Holli Rogers, successful entrepreneurs including Rachel Pendered and Dr Raoul-Gabriel Urma, VC investors such as Niraj Pabari of Giano Capital and former COO of Precede Capital Partners Daljit Sandhu and family offices from the UK and the Middle East.
Rupa Popat said: “This is Arāya Ventures’ debut fund and I’m incredibly proud of what we are able to offer both our 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. And my goal is for us to be operationally impactful to founders with access to our deep and extensive networks.”
“I am thrilled to have secured the support of British Business Investments in Arāya, their first ever commitment to a Solo GP, underscoring our shared commitment to fostering innovation and driving growth in the technology sector whilst addressing imbalances that exist in the early-stage funding environment.”
Adam Kelly, Managing Director, British Business Investments said: ‘’We are excited to partner with Rupa and Arāya Ventures. The Super Angel Fund is a great example of leveraging angel expertise in a formal committed structure which works well for investee companies. The Regional Angels Programme plays an important role in reducing imbalances in access to early-stage equity finance for UK smaller businesses. By co-investing alongside Arāya’s Super Angel Fund, we are bringing together finance, business experience and skills to support the development of high-growth smaller businesses across the UK.”
Read the orginal article: https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/funding/araya-ventures-rolls-out-20m-first-fund-to-back-60-innovative-startups/
