Arãya Ventures and Sie Ventures have partnered to launch the Arãya Sie Fund at £7.5 million with a first close to back female founders building in AI, deeptech, fintech, healthcare and sustainability. The fund will invest in up to 40 pre-seed and seed-stage companies over the next four years, writing initial cheques of £100,000 to £300,000 across the UK and Europe.
The fund aims to address the funding gap facing female founders, who still receive less than 2% of venture funding across the UK and Europe. The Arãya Sie Fund will deploy approximately 70% of its capital in the UK and 30% across Europe. UK-based investors will benefit from SEIS/EIS tax relief on qualifying investments.
The fund is backed by the British Business Bank, which coinvests alongside the Arãya Sie Fund via the Regional Angels Programme. More than 50% of the fund’s LP base is made up of women. The investor base includes American actress Kelly Rutherford alongside female entrepreneurs and executives from organisations including LinkedIn, McKinsey, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Google.
The Arãya Sie Fund has already made its first investment in Lemrock AI, an Entrepreneur First-backed startup building agentic infrastructure for brands and retailers.
Sie Ventures has run founder programmes for more than 250 entrepreneurs and an angel syndicate that has backed 25 companies. Sie Ventures portfolio companies have raised capital from firms including Sequoia, General Catalyst, Localglobe and Balderton. Sie Ventures was named Angel Group of the Year in 2024 and Accelerator of the Year in 2025 by UKBAA.
We’re seeing a fundamental shift in the kind of companies being built, particularly in AI and deeptech, and we believe diverse founders will define the next generation of category leaders. This partnership is about more than capital, it’s about bringing the right networks, conviction and long-term support to founders who have historically been overlooked.
Backing diverse emerging fund managers and angel partners is key to improving access to finance across the UK. The Arāya Sie Fund fits our mission to support high-potential founders and build an innovation economy that draws on the UK’s full talent base.
We’re incredibly excited about this partnership and to also extend the Arāya value-add platform to even more founders from our bi-weekly masterclasses and curated SF founder trip to commercial introductions and hands-on fundraising support as they scale. Our mission at Arāya is to increase the surface area of opportunity for our founders.
