Women in VC: Arya Ventures' Serter on debut gender-balanced fund and supporting female founders

The fund was launched in October 2022 and reached its initial target of USD 10m in late November 2022. The firm now plans to increase the target to USD 15m, Serter said.

The first close was oversubscribed and received a cornerstone investment from Isbank and a consortium of 70 LPs and several individual investors, she added.

Founded by the angel network Arya Women Investment Platform (Arya WIP), in partnership with Maxis and Turkiye Is Bankasi A.S. (Isbank), Arya Ventures is the first and only gender balance-focused impact investment VC firm in Turkey.

Domiciled in Turkey, the fund began soft marketing in October 2022 and it will have a lifespan of 10 years with a two-year extension, she said.

The minimum subscription to the new fund was USD 50,000 and the GP contribution stands at USD 600,000 at the first close, Serter noted.

The management fee during the investment period will stand at 2.5%, dropping to 2% during the management period, with a 20% carry and 1.35x hurdle, she said.

Some 61% of the 71 LPs in the fund are banks and other financial institutions, with corporations comprising 27%, and the remaining 22% made up of individual investors, she added.

Besides the cornerstone investor Isbank, the other investors in the fund are Akbank's asset management arm Ak Asset Management Co., Finberg, the venture capital arm of Fiba Holding, Ford Otosan's CVC Driventure, Turkish conglomerate Kibar Holding and Yurtici Kargo, the Turkish parcel delivery company.

Investment strategy
The fund aims to make early-stage and Series A investments in female-founded Turkish startups, developing innovations and technologies with high scalability potential, competitive edge, and foreseeable exit opportunities, aiming to generate higher returns with medium to long-term value, Serter said.

It will invest 60% of the fund in new investments and the balance in follow-on rounds. Early-stage investment will see ticket sizes between USD 150,000 and USD 250,000 and will make up 40%-60% of the fund, whilst Series A and follow-on will see the fund deploy USD 400,000 to USD 600,000 tickets and will make up the balance.

The fund is sector agnostic and will invest 90% of its reserves in Turkey-based startups, for an average of 10% stake, although it can take up to 20%. The fund plans to conduct 12 to 15 investments per year, either alone or together with other VC and PE houses, Serter said.

The fund has not yet made any investments but is expecting to conduct its first one in March or April, and there are several other shortlisted deals in the pipeline, she said.

Female impact
Arya Ventures' founding group Arya WIP is a collaborative intelligence ecosystem that supports women to become investors and invests in female-led and gender-balanced startups by providing mentorship, training, stakeholders, and access to capital, Serter said.

With more than 300 leading female members, Arya WIP also supports women to become angel investors in order to invest more in female entrepreneurs and gender-balanced startups by providing mentorship, training and access to stakeholders and capital.

From 2013 to 2020, its focus was on ecosystem-building and investor and entrepreneur training, while investment activities have gained momentum in the last two years, Serter said. To date, Arya WIP has invested in 22 startups and deployed USD 5.4m for them, according to its webpage.

A mere 2.3% of the total investments in startups in 2020 were for female-founded businesses and gender balanced investment teams are scarce, with women making up only 10% of the decision-makers in VC and PE firms, Serter noted.

Less than 1% of the USD 70trn market for global financial assets is managed by women-owned companies, she said, citing an SEC report.

On a global scale, only 15% of VC and PE investment teams are gender-balanced according to research by Oliver Wyman, Rock Creek in partnership with the IFC published in 2019, she added.

However, she said, investing in gender-balanced management teams (founded by women) generate a 25% greater valuation increase between two rounds of funding or liquidity events versus startups without parity, according to the same research. Gender-balanced fund management teams also achieved a 20% increase in net internal rate of return (IRR) compared to male-only teams, she added, citing the same research.

In addition to co-founding Arya WIP alongside Munteha Adali, Serter is the chairwoman of Turkish conglomerate Fark Holding. She is also the founder of FarkLabs, a mobility accelerator, and F+ Ventures, a CVC focused on mobility/net-zero assets, besides having invested in several startups as a super angel. She serves at the board of several Turkish companies and startups and Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV).

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