Seed stage venture capital firm WEH Ventures has announced the first close of Fund III, its third fund, with a target corpus of Rs 250 crore. The fund will back 20 to 25 early stage Indian startups serving customers in India and global markets. WEH Ventures launched Fund I in 2017, followed by its flagship Fund II in 2020. Fund I has returned 1.4x capital, while Fund II has already returned capital through one exit and is tracking above top quartile performance, according to the firm. The first close has attracted participation from family offices, exited founders and senior corporate and technology executives. Early backers include Play Capital, a Nordic fund of funds, and family offices such as Eraya, Twin & Bull Investments and Heritage Investments. The investor base also includes exited founders from companies such as Oziva and GS Labs, along with senior executives and CEOs from Thermax, Haleon, Lenovo and PNB MetLife. Senior Silicon Valley executives associated with companies such as Arlo and Intuitive Surgical have also participated. Fund III will invest across sectors such as advanced manufacturing, agriculture, energy transition, artificial intelligence and healthcare, along with consumer and fintech. WEH Ventures has already started deploying capital from Fund III and has committed to eight investments across advanced agriculture, robotics, healthcare diagnostics, retail and edtech. The fund's investments announced so far include Fragaria, which operates in advanced…

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