Founded in 2020 by Ankita Vashistha and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Arise Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm representing the third global fund following the success of Saha Fund and Tholons Capital. Saha Fund, launched in 2015 with INR 100 crore, was positioned as India’s first women-led, tech-focussed VC fund backing female entrepreneurs and delivered 3x returns to investors. Arise Ventures has evolved from Saha Fund’s original singular focus on women-led startups to a more inclusive pipeline whilst retaining operational discipline and gender-sensitive ethos. The fund is currently raising its third fund, targeting a corpus of INR 500 crore ($57.5 million), having already reached its first close at around $11 million as of February 2025. Arise Ventures has made over 50 startup investments across three funds, including notable unicorns such as Licious, Uniphore, CultFit (Fitternity), and Phenom. The firm maintains a 70:30 investment split between Indian and US-based startups, with around 55-60% of its corpus reserved for follow-on investments for portfolio startups that reach performance milestones. Founder Ankita Vashistha brings over 15 years of experience across private equity, venture capital, and entrepreneurship in the UK, US, India, and Singapore.
The fund operates with a private equity-style approach within venture capital, focusing on active value addition beyond capital deployment. Arise Ventures emphasises opening up global market access and client access for portfolio companies, particularly building an India-US corridor to help Indian tech startups establish a meaningful presence in larger economies. The firm connects enterprise AI and SaaS companies to their first clients in the US and helps consumer brands access India’s largest enterprises and marketplaces for distribution. The fund operates an accelerator programme with 50% women participation, with 400 startups having participated to date. Arise Ventures only invests in companies where it can take an active role in helping them understand and sell into their markets, thereby accelerating company growth and delivering better returns for both founders and investors. Investment decisions are made through a curated pipeline, with expert advisers who bring relevant industry leadership experience and deep relationships within the innovation ecosystem.
Investment Amount
Initial cheque sizes ranging from $250,000 to $2 million for pre-seed to Series A investments. The fund maintains reserves (55-60% of the corpus) for follow-on investments in portfolio companies that meet performance milestones.
Target
- Pre-seed to Series A tech startups, with intentional focus on equitable representation, ensuring at least 50% of the portfolio is led by women founders.
- Early-stage startups in enterprise tech, deep tech, SaaS, consumer tech, and consumer brands operating at the intersection of AI, deeptech, and frontier technologies.
- Startups building global products with clear go-to-market strategies, particularly those seeking to establish a presence in the US markets.
- Companies where Arise can provide active operational support and client access.
Focus Areas
Consumer goods, Climate and climate resilience solutions, Enterprise SaaS, Generative AI, Consumer tech, Consumer brands, Business services, Deep tech, Future of work, Health, Fintech, AI-powered solutions, Enterprise AI platforms.
