The ecosystem opportunities.
- First and foremost, what this list represents is decision-making, capital-backed power. We consider power to be collective and additive, and not a zero-sum game. If you’re here reading this, power is a strength for the entire ecosystem. That’s exciting.
- With such a large number of new firms led by women, it means our bank of AUM to be allocated by women in the coming years is large. That’s also exciting.
- While only 2.1% of all VC firms in the US are led by a woman of color (Ugh), of the women-owned firms, 38% of them are led by women of color. We feature many of them below.
- Along with the growing number of women-led funds, Fund of Funds, Institutional LPs and Family Offices all have a growing opportunity to invest with them as LPs, and make a serious impact on closing the gender gap in VC and growth capital.
- Because women investors are twice as likely to invest in women founders, this growing pool of capital at the hands of women like those we list below means a huge potential increase in funding to women-led startups (which, PS, isn’t a fucking charity).
Your calls-to-action.
- Start creating relationships with and amplifying some of the women below. (Easy starter: Follow them all on Twitter.)
- Better yet, start investing in some of their funds (e.g. The W Fund is open for investment).
- If you’re a founder from any background, make sure you have a women-led fund on your cap table at your next fundraise. It’ll probably make you stronger.
- Revisit the Call-To-Action our CEO put out last year, it’s still relevant and is jammed-packed with additional ideas: How to Make Deeper, Longer-Term Changes to VC Investor Diversity (Partners: This One’s For You!)
- Check out our list of Non-Traditional (but awesome) Emerging Fund Managers (and if you are one, make sure you’re on there)
- Engage with any of a number of organizations focused on women in ventures capital, including Women in VC, Transact and All Raise.
- Sign up for our newsletter, you’ll get all the stuff.
- Put your name on this list of interested LPs, organized by Lolita Taub as a way to connect interested investors to women, POC and LGBTQ+ emerging fund managers.
The list.
Our list consists of women who are solo, primary or equal owners of their fund, or are Partner-level owners on an all-women fund team. Without further ado, here are 111 amazing women to get on your radar (and invest your dollars into!). And, for your viewing pleasure, we’ve got it on random load, which means each time you refresh you’ll see new names at the top (let’s be honest, it’s never fun being a “Z” on these lists!).
Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne
Investing in early-stage tech innovation being brought to market by inclusive teams and women of color ("WOC").
Location: New York
Soona Amhaz
Investing in Seed and Series A stage startups in the digital assets and crypto spaces and primarily located in the US.
Location: San Francisco/Bay Area
Best piece of investment advice: Stay disciplined. Investing is not an intellectual game - it's a psychological one.
Carmen Palafax
Investing in Pre-Seed and Seed stage startups where at least one founder is an immigrant of from an underrepresented group.
Location: Los Angeles
Best piece of investment advice: Diverse teams outperform.
Fun fact: Her grandparents had a coffee plantation.
Marissa Campise
Investing in Pre-Series A startups.
Location: New York & Colorado
Fun fact: She's a certified Yoga instructor and Knicks enthusiast.
Jenny Fielding
Investing in Pre-Seed across all verticals.
Location: New York, Los Angeles, London, Denver
Best piece of investment advice: Be authentic.
Fun fact: The just made their 100th investment!
Mametja Moshe
Investing in Growth stage cashflow generative startups in diversified industries, primarily in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Location: Johannesburg
Best piece of investing advice: “Invest in what you know and nothing more...” Warren Buffet.
Fun fact: Moshe Capital Fund Managers is the brainchild of Moshe Capital Proprietary Limited, an award-winning global investment and advisory firm established in 2013.
Cindy Padnos
Investing in early stage B2B/Enterprise software HQ’d in North America, specifically the first institutional investment round.
Location: Oakland CA & Seattle WA
Best piece of investment advice: When building your team, never settle.
Fun fact: She's written 3 whitepapers focused on supporting diversity in the tech sector.
Megan Ananian
Investing in female-founded, Pre-seed and Seed companies through an industry- and geography- agnostic lens.
Location: New York NY
Best piece of investment advice: Be kind. Give feedback. Offer to help. Leave your founders better off than you found them. Do that and the rest will come easily.
Fun fact: I was captain of my grad school Ice hockey team despite the fact I learned to ice skate the same season. I crashed and burned a lot, but they told me I brought good energy.
Sonja De Bruyn
Investing commercial property and property-related growth stage companies via Private Equity, and enhancing Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE).
Location: South Africa
Best piece of investment advice: Always remain curious and endeavour to identify the critical success factors of an investment opportunity that align with strong market fundamentals.
Fun fact: Drinking tea out of their own colourful mugs definitely improves decision-making process.
Monique Woodard
Investing in Seed stage startups across the US and Canada.
Location: San Francisco/Bay Area
Best piece of investment advice: Investors are going to be with you and on your cap table for a long time, so optimize for the best relationships early on, rather than the highest valuation.
Meta Maponya Mhlarhi
Investing in the renewable energy sector and the energy value chain in the South African Region.
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Fun fact: The fund is led by two strong Black women with immense experience in the energy and infrastructure sector. Mahlako recently concluded the first independent power procurement project with Amazon, being the first of its kind in South Africa.
Shruti Gandhi
Investing in Pre-Seed Enterprise and B2B SaaS startups based in the US.
Location: San Francisco / Bay Area
Best piece of investing advice: Ask the following question while making investing decisions: “Do I want to live in the future that this company creates?"
Martina Welkhoff
Investing in early stage women-led spatial computing (AR/VR/AI) companies throughout North America.
Location: Seattle WA
Best piece of investment advice: As an entrepreneur pitching investors, remember that you are the one unlocking value for the investor. That framing will change the way you show up.
Fun fact: She recently gave birth to her first child, a daughter, which has already influenced her thinking on how technology will impact future generations.
Lindsay Taylor Wood
Investing in female-founded, Pre-seed and Seed companies through an industry- and geography- agnostic lens.
Location: New York NY
Victoria Fram
Investing in Seed stage companies around the world that have a positive social and/or environmental impact.
Location: San Francisco CA
Assia Grazioli
Investing in Seed Stage Consumer Tech startups, with a focus on underserved markets and the advancement of Women’s Health, Education, Parenting, Fintech, Media and Entertainment.
Location: Los Angeles
Best piece of investment advice: The goal is not to be successful, the goal is to be valuable. Once you're valuable, instead of chasing success it will attract itself to you.
Fun fact: As of 2012, Assia became the first woman and youngest board member in 120+ year history of the Juventus Football Club in Italy.
Marina Hadjipateras
Investing in Pre-seed and Seed stage startups reimagining the future, with a particular focus on Future of Work, EdTech, Sustainability, Logistics and Mobility and The Care Economy.
Location: New York
Check Warner
Investing in overlooked founders and overlooked markets in the Healthcare, Consumer and Future of Work sectors.
Location: London
Shila Nieves Burney
Investing in diverse entrepreneurs and teams at Seed and early stage, tech-enabled industry, and focused primarily on Southeast emerging diverse innovation hubs.
Location: Atlanta
Best piece of investment advice: Think Big. It's worked well for me my entire life, there is no room that I believe that I can't enter.
Fun fact: She's an awarding project manager after managing a video vignette with actor and comedian, Steve Harvey, to get African American men to take a colonoscopy exam. They broke examination records in the Miami area.
Maria Velissaris
Investing in Series A women's health tech startups based in the US and Israel.
Location: New York and Atlanta
Best piece of investment advice: Invest in founders you like!
Fun fact: In her junior year in high school, she was a US Congressional Page, and climbed on the roof of the Capitol each morning to raise the flag.
Lauren Robinson
Investing in early-stage equity investments in technology startups organized or domiciled primarily in Canada.
Location: Vancouver & Toronto
Best piece of investment advice: Humans have inherent bias - that’s human… it’s whether or not you recognize that bias, is the important part when making investment decisions.
Heather Hartnett
Investing in early-stage startups in the Human Needs Economy (Health & Wellness, Future of Work and Community).
Location: New York
Ali Rosenthal
Investing in Pre-Seed and Seed stage companies.
Location: Portola Valley CA
Best piece of investment advice: Build relationships grounded in trust and respect from the beginning.
Fun fact: She's run a sub 3 hr marathon
Sara Adler
Investing in Seed stage marketplace startups.
Location: San Francisco/Bay Area
Best piece of investment advice: It's all about the team.
Fun fact: Went by Buttercup as a child for a few years (still think The Princess Bride is the best movie!)
Lilian Lehmann
Investing in early-stage global mental wellness startups.
Fun fact: Lilian has lived and worked in 20+ countries across 4 continents.
Trish Costello
Portfolia's family of funds focus on areas where women make markets - e.g. women's health, active aging, consumer, sustainability and food and agtech. Each fund invests in a portfolio of companies from seed to Series C & D, led by experienced Investment Partners.
Location: San Francisco/Bay Area
Fun fact: Less than 1% of affluent women invest in entrepreneurial companies compared to 30% of affluent men. Let’s change that. With Portfolia, women can use their wealth and savvy to fuel the innovations they want, investing for returns while creating a better future.
Gail Wong
Investing in women-led companies in Consumer Tech, Female Consumer & Transformative Tech.
Location: Singapore
Kimmy Paluch
Beta Boom invests at the pre-seed stage in high-growth, software companies based outside of the Bay Area/Silicon Valley. The firm invests inclusively, with an emphasis on female founders, founders of color and immigrants. Beta Boom has a specific focus on healthtech, fintech, consumer and SaaS. What makes Beta Boom different is that beyond monetary investment, they help their startups succeed with daily coaching and operational support across product, marketing, sales and fundraising.
Location: Chicago, IL & Salt Lake City, UT
Best piece of investment advice: "Every game is won with patience." - John Rogers / Mellody Hobson, Ariel Investments
Fun fact: Self-taught Jamaican snowboarder.
Barbara Iyayi
Investing in Africa-focused FinTech startups who are category leaders transforming the financial services infrastructure of the digital economy.
Location: New York & Lagos
Best piece of investment advice: Invest in businesses with an unfair advantage that can't be replicated.
Faye Drouillard
Investing in sustainable & inclusive early-stage businesses - Seed up to Series A - located in Ireland/Netherlands/UK.
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Best piece of investment advice: Enlightened investors + purpose driven businesses = a better future
Fun fact: Mother of three children born in three different countries.
Laura Deering
Investing growth capital into established SMEs in South Africa.
Location: South Africa
Best piece of investment advice: Be patient, be consistent, be principled.
Maggie Sprenger
Investing in early stage startups in the US.
Location: New York & San Francisco
Fun fact: My co-founder and I have known each other since we were high school freshman.
Charmaine Hayden
Investing in consumer, Fintech and future of work in UK and SubSaharan Africa, with an 80% threshold target for investing in diverse founders.
Location: UK
Best piece of investment advice: Take your founding teams to escape rooms or some other challenge that they aren’t prepared for to see if they work well together under pressure.
Fun Fact: GoodSoil was a remote first fund before the pandemic and our LPs were certain that it wasn’t feasible to scout and manage talent remotely.
Diana Murakhovskaya
Investing in US-based Seed stage startups led by women founders.
Location: Houston
Best piece of investment advice: Use your experiences and diverse background as a source of your greatest asset as a founder or investor.
Fun fact: She's from the former Soviet Union and has no sense of smell.
Amra Naidoo
Accelerating Asia's early-stage VC fund focuses on pre-Series A startups with untapped potential that are 6-18 months away from institutional funding. Accelerating Asia invests up to in pre-Series A startups across South and Southeast Asia, the current portfolio covers ten countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Location: Singapore
Best piece of investment advice: Your difference is your strength. People come from completely different backgrounds personally and professionally, which means they are better equipped to look at challenges and opportunities from various perspectives.
Fun fact: She moved to Singapore for a 3-month role with UN Women and 8 years later is still here! She also picked up aerial yoga as a challenge because she was scared of heights. Now it's one of her favourite hobbies.
Xolisile Ntanzi
Investing in the industrial, manufacturing, services (industrial, healthcare, education) and consumer branded goods sectors in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.
Location: South Africa
Best piece of investment advice: Be confident that your partners are worthy of your trust and will keep your best interests at heart.
Fun fact: Heritage Capital is in its 7th year of operation.
Cathy Goddard
Investing in South African SMEs through distress and into economic-stimulating growth using the Fix-and-Build strategy.
We work with businesses that will benefit from the private equity models, after rescuing them using our in-house business rescue skills. We build sector leaders with a preference for food and manufacturing sectors.
Location: Johannesburg South Africa
Best piece of investment advice: Even if you don’t think they will be answered, ask those tricky questions during due diligence. The responses, or lack thereof, will be very insightful. Additionally, if your company is in distress, make sure you face facts really quickly and ask for help sooner than you think.
Nisha Desai
Investing in early stage tech-enabled startups, with a focus on the US, and select global exposure.
Location: New York NY
Best piece of investment advice: "This is the long game, yet time is money and your most valuable asset. So, do your diligence, compound, and sweat for your founders for love of the craft, not the carry." - Nisha Desai
Fun fact: She was employee #4 at Sweetgreen - now ~$1.6bn - back when we used to sell/ eat a lot of froyo.
Dana Labin
Investing in Series B+ startups stage located around the world, with the goal of helping companies launch in the Middle East and scaling MENA companies globally.
Location: United Arab Emirates
Tanya Rolfe
Investing in women-led companies in Consumer Tech, Female Consumer & Transformative Tech.
Location: Singapore
Fun fact: She can hula hoop for hours!
Julie Weber
Investing in female-founded, Pre-seed and Seed companies through an industry- and geography- agnostic lens.
Location: New York NY
Aileen Lee
Investing in early-stage Pre-Seed, Seed and small Series A US-based startups in the enterprise and consumer technology spaces.
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Best piece of investment advice: Develop, listen to and share your gut instincts. They are often right and worth sharing, and betting on.
Fun fact: She and her husband have three kids - and Cowboy is the name of the youngest - he was given the name by his two older sisters. They called their nascent fund "The Cowboy Fund" as the 'pregnancy code name' while they were fundraising - didn't think they'd keep it - but it wound up fitting just right.
Kate Shillo Beardsley
Investing in early stage startups primarily in sectors such as consumer, fintech, commerce, wellness, education, future of work, and SaaS. They are a first check venture fund tracking societal shifts to back bold change agents building transformative companies.
Location: New York
Léonie Weerakoon
Investing in early-stage, post-revenue startups solving threats across the US in tech, health and climate.
Location: New York
Best piece of investment advice: Purpose drives Profit. Be intentional and think of capital beyond IPO or Exit.
Fun fact: Austinite, Sinhalese, Luxembourger with 6 parents and fluent in 4 languages.
Jenni Chamberlain
Investing in mostly public companies in the African Equity region (Africa and ex-South Africa).
Location: South Africa, Kenya, UK
Fun fact: One in every five Africans is Nigerian in a continent of 54 countries, yet Nigeria, with a population of 210M, is only about 3% of Africa's land mass and is about the size of France (population of 65M). Also, the world's richest man was Mansa Musa I from Mali, with an estimated equivalent wealth USD $400B - he lived in 1280 and traded gold and salt.
Carolyne LaSala
Investing in Seed and Series A startups in deep tech (Healthtech, Greentech and Data Sciences) located in North America, predominantly in the Northeast and Southeast.
Location: Charleston SC and Boston MA
Best piece of investment advice: There are so many great, new technology companies. Need expertise to do great diligence with ability to help them grow, while trusting your gut.
Fun fact: The very first investment for Good Growth has $500M in upfront payments and $20B+ in signed contracts - a women founder!
Xuezhao Lan
Invests in Machine Learning and AI, Seed and Series A startups in North America.
Location: San Francisco
Best piece of investment advice: Find your founder-investor fit.
Julie Blane
Investing in ventures with global B2B UrbanTech solutions and back bold founders who are re-imagining how infrastructure can achieve sustainability and resource efficiency in urban environments.
Location: London
Ayesha Iqba
Investing in ventures with global B2B UrbanTech solutions and back bold founders who are re-imagining how infrastructure can achieve sustainability and resource efficiency in urban environments.
Location: London
Rachel Springate
Investing in Seed Stage Consumer Tech startups, with a focus on underserved markets and the advancement of Women’s Health, Education, Parenting, Fintech, Media and Entertainment.
Location: Los Angeles
Best piece of investment advice: Invest in what you know... Nothing Else!
Fun fact: On my 30th birthday I spontaneously met Jay-Z and pitched him to invest in a tech startup I was involved in.
Asma AlQaseer
Investing in Series B+ startups stage located around the world, with the goal of helping companies launch in the Middle East and scaling MENA companies globally.
Location: United Arab Emirates
Kristina Montague
Investing in early stage women-led startups based in the Southeast.
Location: Chattanooga
Best piece of investing advice: Invest in the change you want to see in the world!
Fun fact: They sought only women's capital for our first fund and have since added in a few good men to the group!
Kate Brodock
Investing in women and underrepresented-led early stage tech companies.
Location: New York
Best piece of investment advice: Resist the FOMO, break things, and invest outside the norm.
Fun fact: She lives on a hops farm and used to be in a band.
Hema Vallabh
Investing in Seed and Series A stage women-led technology startups across Africa.
Location: Mauritius
Best piece of investing advice: Own your narrative. Set your terms. Make the ask.
Fun fact: The fund name speaks to its mission to unlock overall African GDP potential uplift of 5% by leveraging the 35% higher ROI typically achieved in female founded businesses.
Cat Hernandez
Investing in Pre-Seed and Seed stage startups located in the US and Europe.
Location: New York NY and London UK
Best piece of investment advice: Party rounds are so 2015.
Fun fact: She can sing a mean karaoke song... "A Whole New World" anyone?
Noramay Cadena
Investing at the intersection of food, culture, and technology, specifically targeting sustainable ingredients, high-integrity brands with cultural appeal, and technology from farm to fork.
Location: Los Angeles & Chicago
Best piece of investment advice: Follow the trail of folks who invite you to BE YOU.
Fun fact: She was once on the path to becoming a pilot.
Makole Mupita
Investing in the renewable energy sector and the energy value chain in the South African Region.
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Fun fact: The fund is led by two strong Black women with immense experience in the energy and infrastructure sector. Mahlako recently concluded the first independent power procurement project with Amazon, being the first of its kind in South Africa.
Monique Idlett Mosley
Investing in Seed and Series A stage startups in the US.
Location: New York and Miami
Fun fact: Founding Partner Monique is currently starring on Undercover Billionaire, where she has to build a startup valued at in three months with only $100 and a fake identity.
Katelyn Donnelly
Investing in US-based startups that enable how people work, live and learn.
Location: US
Best piece of investment advice: Avalanches are powerful, ride massive sector trends.
Fun fact: She writes a newsletter called Obviously The Future.
Sierra Peterson
We invest in early-stage climate tech teams in North America and Europe.
Location: San Francisco & New York
Cindy Bi
Investing in enterprise and seed-focused startups from a generalist viewpoint.
Location: San Francisco/Bay Area
Best piece of investment advice: Develop your own conviction and bet on the founders.
Melanie Hayes
Investing in early-stage tech-for-good startups located in the UK and Europe.
Location: London
Best piece of investment advice: Understand the problem - seek to truly understand the big challenges faced by people, society and the environment.
Fun fact: Bethnal Green Ventures isn't actually based in Bethnal Green... (although it was started there!)
Janneke Niessen
Investing in Seed stage software technology startups that solve a real problem with AI in digital health, education, climate tech, future of work and the new social.
Location: Amsterdam
Best piece of investment advice: Do due diligence on the fund like they do on you and think through who you want on your side during your journey. In good and specifically bad times.
Fun fact: She's done a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz.
Jesse Draper
Investing in Pre-Seed and Seed startups.
Location: Los Angeles
Best piece of investing advice: Take the risk! Put your money to work. It should never sit there.
Fun fact: She's been nominated for an Emmy.
Jennifer Hopp
Investing in Pre-launch technologies companies in Health, Fitness & Wellness and Digital Media & Entertainment, located primarily US and LATAM.
Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Best piece of investment advice: Start building relationships with prospective investors at least two years before you want to raise capital (yes, two!).
Fun fact: She lives by my "Hustle, Don't Grind" motto and teaches entrepreneurs the same.
Alexia Bonatsos
Investing in consumer and frontier tech in SF and beyond.
Location: San Francisco/Bay Area
Best piece of investing advice: The best time to invest in a future unicorn is in the pre-seed. The second best time is now.
Fun fact: Her dream is to write a book one day.
Pialy Aditya
Investing in early-stage tech innovation being brought to market by inclusive teams and women of color ("WOC").
Location: New York
Philile Maphumulo
Investing in the industrial, manufacturing, services (industrial, healthcare, education) and consumer branded goods sectors in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.
Location: South Africa
Best piece of investment advice: Be confident that your partners are worthy of your trust and will keep your best interests at heart.
Fun fact: Heritage Capital is in its 7th year of operation.
Caroline Lewis
Investing in women-led, Seed stage technology companies in US undercapitalized regions.
Location: US
Best piece of investment advice: It's a partnership and requires trust both ways - take the time to find good partners who care about you and your business.
Fun fact: She was a river guide and one of her most favorite places she's stayed is in a treehouse in Laos.
Lolita Taub
Investing in early-stage community-driven startups.
Location: USA
Fun fact: The fund got its start on Twitter and is now an investment team of 13 awesome operators, founders, and investors!
Barbara Clarke
Investing in early stage startups led by diverse founders across several sectors and geographies.
Location: Boston
Amy Salzhauer
Investing in Seed and Series A startups in deep tech (Healthtech, Greentech and Data Sciences) located in North America, predominantly in the Northeast and Southeast.
Location: Charleston SC and Boston MA
Best piece of investment advice: There are so many great, new technology companies. Need expertise to do great diligence with ability to help them grow, while trusting your gut.
Fun fact: The very first investment for Good Growth has $500M in upfront payments and $20B+ in signed contracts - a women founder!
Elizabeth Yin
Investing in Pre-Seed software startups.
Location: San Francisco/Bay Area
Fun fact: She does zoom meetings with hippos riding roller coasters in the background.
Sarah Kunst
Investing in early stage startups in the US.
Location: Los Angeles
Janice Johnston
Investing commercial property and property-related growth stage companies via Private Equity, and enhancing Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE).
Location: South Africa
Best piece of investment advice: Always remain curious and endeavour to identify the critical success factors of an investment opportunity that align with strong market fundamentals.
Fun fact: Drinking tea out of their own colourful mugs definitely improves decision-making process.
Jennifer Neundorfer
Investing in Pre-seed and Seed stage software startups located in the US and Europe, with a particular focus on B2B.
Location: Boston
Best piece of investment advice: Develop peripheral vision and seek it out - the best founders and investors can sense what's around the corner.
Fun fact: She's not much of a cook, but during quarantine she's mastered her abuela's tostones recipe.
Melanie Strong
Investing in late Seed and Series A sports, health and wellness innovation across North America.
Location: Austin & Portland
Best piece of investment advice: Stolen with permission from Leah Fessler @ NextView VC: "The most helpful thing I can do [for founders] is to tell them the truth and not be an asshole."
Fun fact: She used to be a first grade teacher. The lessons that most helped her prepare for VC life were learned in that classroom.
Maya Baratz Jordan
Investing in pre-seed to seed-stage companies in consumer healthcare.
Noor Sweid
Investing in Series A stage startups located in the Middle East and Africa.
Location: Cairo
Lisa Calhoun
Investing in and leading Seed stage software deals headquartered in the Southwest.
Location: Atlanta GA
Best piece of investment advice: Talk to your customers.
Fun fact: She loves her garden... and her horse.
Ariana Thacker
Investing in pre-seed & seed stage consumer companies embracing deep tech and data in North America.
Location: Los Angeles
Best piece of investment advice: Realize that everything is compound interest: skills, wealth, personal & professional relationships...this is especially true for building a company.
Samara Hernandez
Investing in Pre-seed and Seed stage startups across the US and Canada.
Best piece of investment advice: Sometimes you only need one person to believe in you and your idea, find them.
Fun fact: She was a salsa dancer in a former life.
Jennifer Savage
Investing in early stage B2B/Enterprise software HQ’d in North America, specifically the first institutional investment round.
Location: Oakland CA & Seattle WA
Fun fact: She was part of two management teams where the companies went public on the same day (DocuSign and SmartSheet).
Julie Abrams
Investing in all-female-founded and -led startups in late Seed stage through Series C that are revenue-generating, tech-enabled, and have a TAM of $500M+, with a preference for B2B commercialization.
Location: San Francisco/Bay Area
Best piece of investment Advice: It's all about the leader: do they balance optimism with getting things done; are they flexible and coachable?
Fun fact: They're especially proud that the majority of their founding investors are women of color.
Anna Riptas
Investing in Pre-seed and Seed stage startups serving Latin America.
Location: Mexico City
Best piece of investing advice: Make sure you portfolio is well diversified.
Fun fact: Her family is Mexican, Greek, Australian, Spanish, Scottish - making her never quite sure which one of those boxes to check when asked about ethnicity.
Elizabeth Galbut
Investing in pre-seed and seed, women entrepreneurs located in North America and Asia and focused on future of living, working, and staying healthy.
Location: New York and China
Best piece of investment advice: Trust your intuition and avoid people who drain your energy!
Fun fact: The two partners - Elizabeth Galbut and Pocket Sun - have been on different continents for the last 5 years!
Diane Yoo
Investing in early stage, Texas-based startups.
Best piece of investment advice: As a venture capitalist founder, team dynamics and fit are extremely important to the success of the company.
Fun fact: She was first women founder of a medtech/healthtech VC firm in Houston.
Mariah Lichtenstern
Investing in Pre-Seed and Seed stage impact-focused startups based in the US.
Location: Sacramento
Best piece of investing advice: Be a master of unit economics.
Fun fact: She has the rarest Myers Briggs personality type (INFJ).
Meghan Cross Breeden
Investing in early-stage (pre-seed, Seed, Seed+) companies with women in key decision-making roles.
Location: New York NY
Best piece of investment advice: Fundraising is a two-way street, and the best way to earn your line on the cap table is through functional value-add and a unique network.
Fun fact: She's a very-much retired competitive international figure-skater.
Neha Khera
Investing in Pre-Seed startups across multiple industries, and located in the US and Canada.
Location: New York
Best piece of investing advice: The cheapest form of financing is revenue!
Erica Duignan
Investing in Seed and Series A stage startups in the US.
Location: New York and Miami
Fun fact: Founding Partner Monique is currently starring on Undercover Billionaire, where she has to build a startup valued at in three months with only $100 and a fake identity.
Amber Illig
Investing in Seed stage tech and tech-enabled Product Led Growth (PLD) startups.
Location: San Francisco/Bay Area
Melissa Bradley
Investing in early-stage US-based companies run by Black and Brown founders.
Location: Washington DC
Best piece of investment advice: Practice and be prepared for questions...investing is well beyond a pitch.
Fun fact: She's got six kids.
Pocket Sun
Investing in pre-seed and seed, women entrepreneurs located in North America and Asia and focused on future of living, working, and staying healthy.
Location: New York and China
Best piece of investment advice: Trust your intuition and avoid people who drain your energy!
Fun fact: The two partners - Elizabeth Galbut and Pocket Sun - have been on different continents for the last 5 years!
Andrea Bohmert
Investing in innovation-driven, technology-enabled South African startups with proven traction and international expansion potential, focused on Series A.
Location: South Africa
Best piece of investment advice: Investment is not about money - it is about people and building long-term relationships. Only if there is alignment and trust, can you focus on execution.
Shayna Harris
Investing at the intersection of food, culture, and technology, specifically targeting sustainable ingredients, high-integrity brands with cultural appeal, and technology from farm to fork.
Location: Los Angeles & Chicago
Best piece of investment advice: Follow the trail of folks who invite you to BE YOU.
Fun fact: She was once on the path to becoming a pilot.
Irene Atkins
Investing in paradigm-shifting consumer tech ventures that create evolved human experiences for the mass consumer market. Such ventures focus on the future of self, social, or space. As a pre-seed venture fund with a foundry model, we do not fund or incubate external companies, but rather expertly ideate, design, and seed new companies in-house. As a futurist foundry, we particularly specialize in incubating new consumer ventures 18+ months ahead of market.
Location: San Francisco & Los Angeles
Best piece of investment advice: Look to the future, and listen to the needs of the market. The signals that point to the biggest markets, technologies, and innovations of the future are all out there, but you just have to notice them. The markets are constantly changing and evolving, so sharpen your foresight, and keep that investment lens crystal clear.
Fun fact: She is also the co-founder of Inlighten.io, the first and only futures consultancy exclusively serving the VC and startup ecosystems.
Carli Sapir
Investing in Sexual Health and Women’s Health Tech startups at Seed and Series A stage and located in America and Europe.
Location: Los Angeles
Best piece of investment advice: A strong founding team can make all the difference. Every startup faces many obstacles, excellent founders will overcome them.
Fun fact: Online retailers have witnessed a spike in customers searching for “sexual wellness” – the term was up by 850% on Cult Beauty in March 2020, the month the US/UK lockdown began.
Maureen Boyce
Investing in Seed and Series A startups in deep tech (Healthtech, Greentech and Data Sciences) located in North America, predominantly in the Northeast and Southeast.
Location: Charleston SC and Boston MA
Best piece of investment advice: There are so many great, new technology companies. Need expertise to do great diligence with ability to help them grow, while trusting your gut.
Fun fact: The very first investment for Good Growth has $500M in upfront payments and $20B+ in signed contracts - a women founder!
Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes
Investing with a gender lens in early stage growth startups located in Africa.
Location: Nigeria
Fun fact: Aruwa means we are in prosperity.
Maya Horgan Famodu
Investing in early stage startups located across Africa.
Location: Lagos
Maren Bannon
Investing in Pre-seed and Seed stage software startups located in the US and Europe, with a particular focus on B2B.
Location: Boston
Ewa Hartcourt-Wood
Investing growth capital into established SMEs in South Africa.
Location: South Africa
Best piece of investment advice: Be patient, be consistent, be principled.
Genevieve Gilbreath
Investing in Seed and Series A stage consumer brand products across the US.
Location: Austin
Best piece of investing advice: Think of a combination padlock when evaluating early stage businesses - unless all the numbers are correct, you won’t succeed in opening the lock. The same is true for unlocking success in a startup. You need the right combination of a few crucial things, but top of my list is always people! Great founders are driven, focused, lateral thinkers who have the ability to set a strong vision, solve tough problems, and build great teams that will execute on the vision. They may not know the right numbers to open the combination right away, but they will figure it out!
Fun fact: She is named after a saint and an elf queen and her sister is named after a spice and a tree. Had they been boys, their parents planned to name them Abraham Jefferson and George Edison.
Leslie Goldman
Investing in mission-driven female founders in the US building businesses to increase financial inclusion, address sustainability, and increase opportunities for small business owners. The Artemis Fund is one of a handful of female-led venture funds focused exclusively on female-led companies in the US.
Location: Houston, Texas
Best piece of investment advice: Learn constantly. Use podcasts, books, articles, webinars to hear perspectives from lots of other investors.
Fun fact: She grew up thinking she would be an opera singer.
Allyson Kapin
Investing in early stage women and underrepresented-led technology startups.
Location: DC
Best piece of investing advice: Don't be a jerk! Treat people like how you want to be treated.
Fun fact: She founded an underground film festival.
Amy Nauiokas
Investing in Pre-Seed to Series A FinTech and InsurTech startups in US and Europe.
Location: New York NY & London UK
Tricia Black
Investing in early-stage (pre-seed, Seed, Seed+) companies with women in key decision-making roles.
Location: New York NY
Leah Solivan
Investing in Seed stage consumer, SaaS and infrastructure startups in the US.
Location: Burlingame CA
Best piece of investment advice: Look for purpose-built founders.
Fun fact: She's the founder of TaskRabbit and a former ballerina.
Marta Gaia Zanchi
Investing in Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A startups in Health Technology and located in Europe, UK, United States, Canada, Israel, and beyond.
Location: Europe
Best piece of investment advice: If you don't crave learning, you are in the wrong profession.
Fun fact: What's behind the name.
Erika Cramer
Investing in all-female-founded and -led startups in late Seed stage through Series C that are revenue-generating, tech-enabled, and have a TAM of $500M+, with a preference for B2B commercialization.
Location: San Francisco/Bay Area
Best piece of investment Advice: Invest with your whole heart, mind, soul, and gut.
Fun fact: She competes in Triathlon, and the older she gets, the higher she finishes in her races.
Samantha Pokroy
A private equity fund targeting Africa-based investments in established businesses at an inflection point, with new avenues for growth driven by technology, innovation, sectoral drivers (organic & acquisitive).
Location: Sandton Johannesburg, South Africa
Best piece of investment advice: Investing with ‘good people’ and being ‘good people’ pays dividends – in return on time, effort, energy and money and times of pressure or crisis shows good character. Taking time in deal-making can help reveal the good from the not-so good.
Fun fact: Voted at business school “Most likely to rule a small third world country”. She also fulfills artistic ambitions decorating birthday cakes for her kids.
Daniella Kranjac
Investing in Life Science startups focused on the services, tools, technologies that are critical for discovery, development and manufacturing in biopharma.
Location: New York
Fun fact: She's an avid cyclist.
Shripriya Mahesh
Investing in the things that make life worth living - well-being, work and purpose, and human connection - via late Seed and Series A North America-based deals.
Location: Bay Area
Best piece of investment advice: Play the long-game.
Fun fact: Have directed Oscar-nominated actors Jessica Chastain and James Franco.
Gale Wilkinson
Investing in Pre-seed and Seed stage B2B software startups focused on the Future of Work and Learning.
Location: Chicago IL
Best piece of investment advice: Whenever facing a problem or important decision, listen to your intuition. Being authentic to yourself will always lead you in the right direction.
Fun fact: I am currently on a six month road trip with my husband, Matt, and yellow lab, Samson. Our favorite stop has been a guest ranch where Samson got to meet horses, llamas, and goats - oh my!
Jessica Peltz Zatulove
Investing in early stage startups primarily in sectors such as consumer, fintech, commerce, wellness, education, future of work, and SaaS. They are a first check venture fund tracking societal shifts to back bold change agents building transformative companies.
Location: New York
Best piece of investment advice: Treat your fundraising process like a enterprise sales cycle: know your customer profile (aka which investors) make the most sense to target, be thoughtful about your outreach, and keep an organized CRM to manage follow up. Be sure you're prepared to know why that investor might be interested in your business, and what type of value / expertise they would be able to bring to your journey.
Fun fact: Their firm - Hannah Grey - is named after their daughters - Raya Hannah and Gunnison Grey (3 years old and 6 months apart!).
Soraya Darabi
Investing in Pre-seed and Seed stage startups reimagining the future, with a particular focus on Future of Work, EdTech, Sustainability, Logistics and Mobility and The Care Economy.
Location: New York
Best piece of investing advice: Capital alone isn't going to get you anywhere. Think of what you're best at - what makes you singular - and present that one theme to the founders with whom you work. Tell them to call you when they need help with your subject matter expertise. This will help you build a brand AND add value to companies who are pressed for time. Terrific generalist "jack of all trades" investors are rare, but singular investors are sought after.
Fun fact: Her father was a NYC cab driver - 1A57 - and she learned how to drive in his Yellow Cab.
Elisa Miller-Out
Investing with a gender and diversity lens in seed stage innovation companies across the US.
Location: Ithaca, Saratoga Springs, Chicago
Best piece of investment advice: #InvestInWomen
Fun fact: As the daughter of a New Orleans musician, she feels that one can never have too many accordions.
Claire Chang
Investing in the global wellness market, at the intersection of technology, beauty and wellness.
Location: Palo Alto CA
Best piece of investment advice: How you differentiate from good to great: An email follow up after every investor meeting. Even if it's just a simple thank you note.
Fun fact: Her fantasy superhero is Wonder Woman!
Patty Wexler
Investing in early stage breakthrough tech solving humanity's biggest problems.
Location: Miami
Best piece of investment advice: Illiquid, long-term investing is all about thinking about the world in a decade, don't let yourself be overly influenced by group-think and short-term news.
Gina Kirch
Investing in Pre-Seed and Seed stage startups in US and Europe.
Location: New York and London
Best piece of investing advice: Authenticity is key - the more genuine you are as a person and honest you are about your business, the greater amount of trust and respect you'll receive from prospective investors.
Fun fact: She used to do competitive eating. Her proudest feat was taking down an 87oz steak and 16oz of mashed potatoes in 28 minutes.
Heather Henyon
Investing in early-stage women-led tech companies in the shifting sectors of foodtech, edtech, health/wellnesstech, fintech.
Location: Dubai
Fun fact: Heather has lived in Dubai for 13 years.
Moushmi Patel
Location: Sandton Johannesburg, South Africa
Investing in growth-stage businesses at an inflection point, with new avenues for growth driven by technology, innovation, sectoral drivers (organic & acquisitive).
Investment region: Africa (Primarily out of South Africa)
Best piece of investment advice: Successful investing takes time, patience and discipline
