Aarthi Ramamurthy sets up $20M fund to back early-stage startups

Ramamurthy, who has previously worked at Microsoft, Netflix and Meta, among others, is looking to back companies in industrial software, workflow intelligence, and developer tools segments.

May 21, 2025 - 13:50

Aarthi Ramamurthy sets up $20M fund to back early-stage startups

Aarthi Ramamurthy, a startup investor and podcast host, on Wednesday launched her $20 million fund to back early-stage startups.

Scheme Ventures will focus on companies that fall under the industrial software, workflow intelligence, and developer tools and infrastructure segments, Ramamurthy said in a LinkedIn post.

The VC firm is backed by former Google executive and investor Gokul Rajaram; angel investor Elad Gil; Marc Andreessen, Co-founder and General Partner of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz; and Y Combinator’s fund of funds, among others.

“I grew up an outsider. I moved to San Francisco, built two startups, and shipped products at Microsoft, Netflix, and Meta. My story - figuring it out without a roadmap - is the blueprint for Schema,” Ramamurthy said in the post.

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Ramamurthy, who previously worked at Netflix, Microsoft, and Meta, among others, hosts ‘The Aarthi and Sriram show’, along with her husband, Sriram Krishnan, who is the senior White House Policy Advisor on artificial intelligence.

Krishnan was formerly a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

“Schema backs exceptional outsiders: early-stage founders building from lived experience, not from pedigree or proximity. Sometimes there’s no pitch deck yet, no co-founder, no capital — just conviction and technical insight. That’s where we come in,” she added in the post.

Ramamurthy spoke about the fund at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International Summit in Riyadh, adding that despite the general VC sentiment that there are too many funds, startup founders would argue that there is a gap. Scheme Ventures is looking to solve this problem.

Edited by Suman Singh