Women in VC: Lima Ventures' Argun on exit plans and gender-equal investing

The process to secure additional commitments for Alima will be launched by the year-end or in the beginning of 2024, Argun said.

Alima is Lima Ventures' third fund and is established in the Netherlands. The fund conducts follow-on investments for companies in Lima's previous funds to help its portfolio companies to attract global investors, Argun said.

So far, the fund has invested in Sertifier, a digital credential management platform; Clotie, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based style recommendation company; and Magnus, a fintech startup providing investment management tools, she said.

Like the venture capital (VC) firm's other vehicles, Alima is an open-ended (revolving) and strategic fund. Lima Ventures was established in March 2020 and has so far raised around USD 10m under its three funds.

Exits on the cards
Lima, the VC's initial open-end (revolving) fund, has made 12 investments so far, according to Argun. The VC will grow its funds through reinvesting the returns from exits to the fund, she said.

It made its first exit via the sale of the mobile gaming startup Udo Game to the Turkish game developer and publisher Tailworlds in August 2022, only 11 months after the initial investment, Argun added. The VC has two to three more candidates for fast exits in the next 24 months, she said.

The investments that the VC has made to date have been sector agnostic and fully focused on tech startups, she said. The VC has no geographic limitations for its investments, although it prefers to invest in regions neighbouring Turkey. The average ticket size for the first fund's investments is USD 50,000-USD 250,000.

Lima Next
Lima Next is the VC's second fund. It has a different LP base from its predecessor but has a similar investment strategy, Argun said. It also invests in tech companies, including the Web3, AI and virtual reality (VR) segments.

This fund has invested in startups with female founders including Evimdeki Psikolog, a psychological counselling platform, and Malty, a sustainable food technology firm which is a spin-off from Turkish brewery company Efes Pilsen and uses malt waste to produce power bars as snack, Argun said.

Other portfolio companies in the fund include Tion, one of the first end-to-end online insurance agency in Turkey; L8 Studio, a gaming platform; and DeepSport, an AI-backed personal trainer platform that operates in several languages, Argun said.

The fund has so far made 11 investments and there are four more in the pipeline in fintech, the Metaverse, gaming and marketing technology, she said. The earliest exit from the second fund could be in 24 months, Argun added.

The VC would consider raising additional funds in the medium term after the next four investments, probably during the fall, she noted. The fund has a seven-year lifespan, which is expected to wind up in 2029-2030, at which time it will be liquidated, Argun said.

Female-founded success
Argun is responsible for scouting for investment opportunities for Lima's three funds and notes that startups with at least one female founder are favoured.

There is no equality in the VC and PE business, she noted, but there are a lot of women at managerial roles. Gender equality is one of the criteria for investment and success, whilst meritocracy is a must, she adds.

"We do ask founders if they are mulling including women in the team, in cases where there are none," she said. "There should be a balance and in the absence of women, the company faces blindness, and that is not a healthy situation."

Being alone in the driving seat of a startup might be compelling for women when attracting investment in the global scale when compared with male-founded companies, Argun notes. However, Lima Ventures has invested in several female-founded startups including fintech startup Magnus, Malty and marketing tech startup Heybooster (where one of the co-founders is a woman).

The reason why the number of women in startups is low is not because they are pushed back, but because of a lack of proper encouragement, Argun said. There is no discrimination at early stages but the traditions are still strong, she notes.

There is no concrete evidence of female-founded startups getting less investment, Argun said, adding that she believes that female founders are generally more motivated and talented. The primary criteria for Lima's investments are not gender based, but centre around whether the founders have full control of their business areas, she added.

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