US and India-based investment platform Achieving Women Equity (AWE) Funds has announced the first close of its maiden fund in India. The gender-focused investor has raised $15 million and is targeting an overall fund of $45 million with a green-shoe option of an additional $15 million.

The platform will invest across sectors including climate and sustainability, food and agriculture, healthcare, education, and fintech while promoting gender equity and climate action as a differentiated strategy to seek commercial returns for its investors.

Last August, AWE announced the launch of its maiden India-focused fund of Rs 350 crore (approx $40 million).

The SEBI-registered fund and is backed by blue-chip international and India-based institutional investors and HNI investors, including, Zia Mody (Founder, AZB & Partners), Soumya Rajan (Founder and CEO, Waterfield Advisors), Padma Chandrasekaran (ex-Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Divya Sampath (formerly Microsoft), Ajay Prabhu (former COO, Quest Global), Ramakishnan Raman (Founder, aXYKno Capital), Vikas Chaturvedi (Founder, Valuecent), Sunil Srivastava (CEO, Ampera Life), Simran Jindal (Executive Partner, IBM Consulting), and other notable leaders.

“The fastest growing market and an under-appreciated resource in most countries are women. By focusing on gender equity and climate action which are very significantly and inextricably linked, the Awe Funds team is uniquely positioned to identify investment opportunities that deliver superior commercial returns to our investors while unlocking serious nation-building impact returns," said Seema Chaturvedi, Founding Partner of AWE Funds.

"Our investments unleash a virtuous economic value creation cycle that generates sustainable and scalable multi-generational prosperity. We are very grateful to our early investors who have supported us and invite others to join this movement,” she added.

The AWE Funds invests in pre-Series A and Series A rounds in mostly post-revenue companies. Further, it has set a target of helping 30 million women globally to gain agency by 2030.

It seeks to accomplish this by investing in companies that promote the participation of women as owners, consumers, producers, employees, employers, leaders, and market makers. In doing so, AWE Funds additionally seeks measurable climate action (both mitigation and adaptation) and greenhouse gas reduction through its portfolio companies.

The firm houses four portfolio companies—Freshokartz Agri Pvt Ltd (agritech), Blackburn Technologies Pvt Ltd and dba Remedico (healthtech), Agam International (fintech), and Velmeni.ai (healthtech). The fund stated that the companies together have helped over 250,000 women gain agency, enhanced sustainability, as well as demonstrated significant financial returns to the investors.