Female Founders Office Hours: Meet the Investors, Part I
We launched the Female Innovators Lab last September in partnership with Barclays to encourage and support more female founders in the fintech space. While our focus is on fintech, we recognize that the support of underrepresented founders is lacking across all sectors. When we went fully remote in March, we started to think of ways we can continue to engage and advance our ecosystem from home. How do we give founders access to investors they don’t already know without the chance encounter?
We decided to join forces with two non-profit organizations — Diversity VC and Ladies Who Launch — to host office hours dedicated to female founders across all sectors and all stages. We reached out to our friends at other VC funds to form a group of badass (and majority female) investors to put in front of founders. If you’re a founder, visit bit.ly/femalefounderhours to submit your application. I’m happy to kick off the introduction of the investors you’ll be meeting in just a few weeks to make the conversations around fundraising, mentorship, product roadmaping, sales etc. as helpful and constructive as possible.
Jillian Williams — Anthemis
Stage: Pre-Seed-Series A
Sector: Fintech
Anthemis is an investment firm focused on cultivating change in financial services by investing in, and building businesses committed to improving the world. We are founded on three guiding principles — authentic collaboration, virtuous cycle outcomes, and diversity and inclusivity — and our deep understanding of markets and models, passion for emerging technology, and values inspire everything we do. Our goal is to reinvent finance by bringing together and investing in talented entrepreneurs, thought-leaders, institutions, and change-agents in the world of finance to solve the financial services’ most pressing challenges faster, better, and for the benefit of all.
Ashley Paston — Bain Capital Ventures
Stage: Series A-Series C
Sector: Fintech
Bain Capital Ventures partners with disruptive founders to accelerate their ideas to market. The firm invests from seed to growth in enterprise software, infrastructure software, and industries being transformed by data. Bain Capital Ventures has helped launch and commercialize 200-plus companies since 2000, including investments in DocuSign, Jet.com, Kiva Systems, LinkedIn, Rapid7, SurveyMonkey, Taleo, and TellApart. Bain Capital Ventures has approximately $3.6 billion of assets under management with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Boston.
Adriana Saman — Clocktower Technology Ventures
Stage: Pre-Seed-Series B
Sector: Fintech
Clocktower Technology Ventures is the technology investing affiliate of Clocktower Group, a global macro investment firm. CTV partners with phenomenal entrepreneurs who have the vision and drive to reinvent financial services, investing from the earliest seeds of startup life to businesses scaling for growth. The firm supports leading companies across all sectors of financial services, including lending, payments, insurance, asset management, personal finance, and capital markets. CTV’s distinctive approach to fintech venture capital is crafted around a curated network of global macroeconomic thinkers and investors.
Lily Bernicker — Collaborative Fund
Stage: Seed
Sector: Agtech, Consumer, Digital Health, Femtech, Retailtech
Collaborative Fund is an investment fund focused on supporting and investing in the shared future. The fund centers around two macro themes which the firm believes will be driving business innovations in the coming years: the growth of the creative class and the concept of collaborative consumption.
Hannah Arnold — F-Prime Capital
Stage: Seed-Series B
Sector: Fintech
F-Prime Capital is a global venture capital firm investing in healthcare and technology. For the past 50 years, the independent venture capital group has had the privilege of backing great entrepreneurs building groundbreaking companies. With over two billion dollars under management and a global portfolio of more than 190 companies, F-Prime Capital champions those dedicated to creating positive change in the world.
Lisa Xu — FirstMark Capital
Stage: Seed-Series A
Sector: B2B, Consumer, Fintech, and Retail tech
FirstMark is an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City. The firm’s mission is to partner with entrepreneurs who are focused on solving meaningful problems. FirstMark has built an engaged community among the teams in the firm’s network to spread ideas and opportunities. FirstMark are privileged to work alongside the founders of businesses like Pinterest, Shopify, Airbnb, Riot Games, InVision, Tapad, and dozens more.
Sharla Grass — Greycroft
Stage: Seed-Series A
Sector: Consumer, Digital Health
Greycroft is a leading venture capital firm focused on investments in the Internet and mobile markets. With offices in the two media capitals of the world — New York and Los Angeles — Greycroft is uniquely positioned to serve entrepreneurs who have chosen us as their partners. Greycroft leverages an extensive network of media and technology industry connections to help entrepreneurs gain visibility, build strategic relationships, bring their products to market, and build successful businesses. Greycroft manages in excess of $1 billion and has made over 150 investments since inception in leading companies including Acorns, App Annie, Boxed, Braintree, Buddy Media, Everything But The House, Extreme Reach, Huffington Post, Icertis, JW Player, Maker Studios, Plated, Scopely, Shipt, TheRealReal, Thrive Market, Trunk Club, Venmo, WideOrbit, and Yeakha.
Ashley Ramirez — Halogen Ventures
Stage: Seed-Series A
Sector: Digital Health, Edtech, Femtech, Fintech, Retailtech
Halogen Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund focused on female-founded consumer technologies. The firm believes in hands-on attention and plugs each of its portfolio companies into a strategic network of advisors, investors, and accelerators in the greater venture community. With a focus on consumer, Halogen Ventures also adds value in the entertainment, marketing, and PR space to further the footprint of its brands.
Geri Kirilova — Laconia Capital Group
Stage: Seed
Sector: B2B, Constructiontech, DevTools, Fintech, Retailtech
Laconia Capital Group L.P. is headquartered in New York City and was founded in 2014. Laconia is a fund investing at the Late Seed and Series-A stage of B-to-B SaaS companies solving immediate market, product, and legacy workflow problems in the marketing services, data management, mobile communications, publishing, media, sports, and entertainment industries.
Lisa Cuesta — NextGen VP
Stage: Seed
Sector: B2B, DevTools, Cnnstructiontech, HRtech, Regtech, Cyber
NextGen Venture Partners works with over 1,100 Venture Partners to invest $1 million in seed-stage companies and $2 million to $10 million in companies with more than $10 million in revenue. The firm’s Venture Partners are top founders and innovation executives across the country whose expertise and connections help NextGen accelerate the growth of its portfolio companies.
Nitya Rajendran— Tribeca Venture Partners
Stage: Series A
Sector: Digital Health, EdTech, Femtech, Fintech, Regtech, Cyber
Tribeca Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm that partners with world-class entrepreneurs in the New York City area leveraging emerging technologies and business models to create and disrupt huge markets.
Applications are open, so head over to bit.ly/femalefounderhours to submit yours. See you on June 30!
