Colossa Ventures
Colossa Ventures is a Mumbai-based, women-first venture capital firm that backs startups founded, co-founded, or principally serving women across India. Colossa's water footprint is narrow: one tracked bet, Exposome, a startup whose regenerable filters clean both wastewater and air. As of 2026 Colossa invests from the Colossa WomenFirst Fund.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Colossa Ventures is what happens when two of Indian finance's most senior women decide the country's most under-funded market is women themselves. Ashu Suyash ran the ratings house CRISIL as its chief executive; Vandana Rajadhyaksha spent two decades investing at ICICI Ventures and Aditya Birla. In 2022 they built Colossa around one bet: that startups founded, co-led, or mainly serving women are systematically starved of capital in India, and that a fund built to find them will out-earn the market that overlooks them.
Water is not the thesis here, and a water search that lands on Colossa should know that up front. Colossa runs a gender-lens fund across consumer, fintech, healthcare, deep tech and climate, and water surfaces only where that last sleeve meets a woman founder. The clearest case I track is Exposome, the single water company in Colossa's book: a Mumbai materials-science startup founded by the chemist Prerna Goradia, whose regenerable filtration media (branded PurCODe) strip dissolved micropollutants out of industrial wastewater, with a sister product doing the same job for air. Colossa has backed Exposome twice, the only two water deals on its record.
Colossa WomenFirst Fund, the vehicle doing the investing, announced a first close of 100 crore rupees in March 2024 against a 500 crore target, with backers including the development bank SIDBI and the Ranjan Pai family office. For a newcomer landing here from a search, the honest read is the one (don't) Waste Water's data already gives it an Occasional water rating: Colossa is a women-first investor first, and water is something it owns exactly once, because a woman happened to build the filter.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Colossa Ventures invest in?
- Colossa Ventures invests in women-first startups across India: companies founded, co-founded, or mainly serving women, spanning consumer, fintech, healthcare, deep tech and climate. Through its climate and cleantech work it has backed one water company that (don't) Waste Water tracks, the wastewater and air filtration startup Exposome.
- Is Colossa Ventures a water investor?
- Colossa Ventures is not a dedicated water fund; it is a women-first, gender-lens venture firm in Mumbai. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Occasional, because just one of its portfolio companies, the filtration-media startup Exposome, works on water, alongside air pollution.
- What water companies has Colossa Ventures backed?
- Colossa Ventures has backed one water company that (don't) Waste Water tracks: Exposome, a Mumbai materials-science startup founded by chemist Prerna Goradia. Exposome makes regenerable filtration media that pull dissolved micropollutants from industrial wastewater, with a parallel product aimed at air pollution.
- Who runs Colossa Ventures?
- Colossa Ventures was co-founded in 2022 by Ashu Suyash, former managing director and CEO of the ratings firm CRISIL, and Vandana Rajadhyaksha, a former partner at ICICI Ventures and Aditya Birla Private Equity. Both are veterans of Indian finance who built the firm to fund women founders.
- Where is Colossa Ventures based?
- Colossa Ventures is based in Mumbai, India, working out of the Lower Parel district. The SEBI-registered firm invests across India through its Colossa WomenFirst Fund, which announced a 100 crore rupee first close in March 2024 against a 500 crore target corpus.