20SALES, a venture capital fund led by eight women, said it has closed its $5 million inaugural fund, which it will invest mainly in early-stage, business-to-business SaaS companies.
The newly launched fund is an offshoot of venture firm 20VC, which was founded by Harry Stebbings, but it is a separate vehicle entirely. The fund plans to write checks of $100,000 and above for pre-seed, seed and Series A companies. It currently does not have any reserves for follow-on investments and instead will optimize for ownership on the first check.
The fund hopes to invest in at least 50 companies over the next two years. Although the focus of the fund is not just to solely back women, it hopes to focus its efforts there when possible.
20SALES’ founding partners are Jessica Arnold, Stevie Case, Kelly Bray, Liat Bycel, Kim Graves, Renu Gupta, Maggie Hott and Lauren Schwartz. All will be staying at their jobs and working at this fund part-time.
Stebbings, as a limited partner and advisor to the fund, managed its fundraising process and said the capital came from the LPs of 20VC. “They rarely do first-time funds, if ever,” he said of his own LP base. “However, they immediately saw the unique positioning of the fund and the immense quality of the partnership. Given both these elements, it took a very short time to raise.”
Other LPs include Harvard Management Company and Stewart Butterfield.
Speaking to TechCrunch, Hott said the fund hopes to inspire the next generation of women investors and have a material impact on the number of women operators in the space.
The fund also aims to help build a founder community for women. Female entrepreneurs receive less than 3% of all VC funds allocated in any given year. “We want to fund more of them,” Hott said. “Simple.”
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