Chennai, India-based incubator, Villgro, has completed its first close for its impact fund, Menterra Venture Advisors, according to the Economic Times.

 

Menterra Venture Advisors was launched in August 2015 by Mukesh Sharma, Paul Basil, and PR Ganapathy as a vehicle through which to make early stage investments in startups in the agricultural, energy, healthcare, and educational sectors, and by its scheduled close in March 2017, the fund expects to have a corpus of approximately US$6 million. The fund will be evenly divided between individual and institutional investors, according to Inc42.

 

Menterra, which represents “Land of Mentoring”, plans to invest in 20 companies within the next five years, committing between US$150,000 and US$450,000 to each, and in partnership with Villgro, will also provide its startups with expertise and advisors that can help guide each company’s growth.

 

Deal Street Asia reports that the Lemelson Foundation has seeded the fund with a commitment of $2 million and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation has committed $1.5 million. Additional investors include high-net-worth individuals, Chandu Nair, co-founder of the Scope e-Knowledge Center, and Meenakshi Ramesh with the Pratham Education Foundation.