Europe’s crowd of solo GPs has been gradually growing over the last few years — and exited entrepreneur Rupa Popat is one of the latest to join the pack.
Her London-based firm Araya Ventures has raised £18.2m of its first fund, targeting a final close of £20m in May, twice the size she originally aimed for.
The “Super Angel Fund” will back UK B2B SaaS and consumer startups at pre-seed and seed, with a particular focus on healthtech, fintech, commerce and the future of work.
I genuinely believe that this is the moment of solo GPs.
British Business Investments, a subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has committed £5m via a co-investment vehicle at its second close, its first commitment to a solo GP firm in the UK. It’s a sign that appetite to back solo GPs is increasing among institutional investors.
“I genuinely believe that this is the moment of solo GPs, where we’re being welcomed into the market,” Popat tells Sifted. “Founders love having exited founders as their investors.”
The details
Araya Ventures expects to write cheques of between £150k-450k in around 60 companies. Like many solo GP funds, it won’t seek to lead deals.
While the firm only plans to make a maximum of six-follow investments with the first fund, it does plan to help its portfolio with follow-on capital by coinvesting in Series A and B rounds with family offices that are LPs in Araya.
Other LPs in the fund include 50 angel investors including C-suite professionals — such as former Credit Suisse CEO Phil Cutts, former Bridgerton actress Charithra Chandran and exited founders such as Rachel Pendered, former BBC presenter and founder of learning and communications agency MediaZoo and Amar Radia, cofounder of restaurant group Dishoom.
VCs such as Niraj Pabari of Giano Capital and former COO of Precede Capital Partners Daljit Sandhu have also backed the fund.
Araya Ventures has already made nine investments from the super angel fund — 50% of which are in AI startups. They include Capably, which automates internal business processes, Research Grid, which automates clinical trial management, and Cold AI, an operating system for founders.
Popat is keen to back startups outside of London to level the playing field for teams not based in the capital.
Another atypical aspect of Araya Ventures’ business is its angel academy, which trains women to become angel investors. In the UK, just 14% of angel investors are women, according to the most recent figures.
The academy also functions as a scout network, where graduated angels share deal flow with Araya Ventures and receive a percentage of carry if the firm invests in an opportunity they spotted. The UK academy has had 200 graduates so far, with 300 more graduating this year. A version of the academy launched this year in the United Arab Emirates.
Popat is a serial entrepreneur whose company, FUTR — which organises summits and events focused on future trends in retail, marketing and commerce — exited to Hong-Kong listed Pico Group in 2019.
In the last five years, she has invested in 30 startups and seven emerging managers as an angel investor. Five of the founders Popat invested in as an angel have invested in Araya’s first fund.
